CRF upbeat about continued seafreight growth

Despite a slowdown in both the Chinese and the South African economies, seafreight volumes out of the Far East have continued to grow. And this trend is expected to continue in 2015, says Martin Keck, managing director of sea and airfreight consolidator and container freight station operator, CFR Freight. “We anticipate LCL volume to grow further in 2015 and we are hoping for freight rate increases as the low rate levels are not sustainable for the carriers at present,” he told FTW. “Profitability comes into question with such low rates – and unless we see some kind of improvement there could be more mergers and alliances going forward.” Offering direct services from eight ports in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand and Singapore, CFR continues to work on extending the number of direct routes into South Africa. We have seen the biggest growth in volumes from Ningbo, South China and Hong Kong. “Our latest offering is a direct service from Hong Kong to Port Elizabeth on top of the existing services from Shanghai and Singapore,” says Keck. “Our exports into the Far East are being channelled through Singapore and Hong Kong. Growing our services is a key strategy in light of the expected volume growth.” And Keck believes some of the growth can also be atributed to the opening of CFS/ZacPak. “This extension of our NVOCC services has been well received by our clients in South Africa and our partners in the Far East as the handling of the cargo remains fully under our own control while container movements and cargo availability have become much faster. So it is more services and enhanced products creating a positive outlook for the year 2015,” he said. INSERT & CAPTION We have seen the biggest growth in volumes from Ningbo, South China and Hong Kong. – Martin Keck