Customs facility saves time and money

CAPITALISING ON a provision in the Customs Act dealing with duty on imported goods, Customs Services has opened a niche market that offers customers cost and time savings. Styled ‘Stage Consignments’, it allows the company to negotiate directly with customs to handle all imports for a project under one tariff head, while bringing in the components from different companies through different points of entry. The single requirement is that each complete order must be in excess of 500 tons. “In some projects we import the whole plant from one source, but there are many others where different components are imported from different parts of the world, and that is when this becomes so valuable,” says managing director Chris Scott. “We are extensively involved in imports of this nature. With our operational skills we can co-ordinate cargo from various sources and get it all to its destination in good time. “ The mining industry in particular has benefited from this approach. “We have handled whole factories in this manner, but it isn’t merely imports that require our attention,” says Scott. “More and more plants manufactured in this country are being exported both regionally and abroad. We have dispatched equipment to projects in North African countries as well as Botswana and Zambia, and even some to Zimbabwe.”