Dearth of direct seafreight links hampers growth

South Africans remain in very high demand in Africa but have yet to leverage the opportunities presented on the continent to their full extent. According to Lars Greiner, logistics manager for TWP Projects, part of the Basil Read Group, South Africans have unique skills in dealing with Africa that are highly valued by many companies and countries that are extending their footprints on the continent. “We are, however, not leveraging this opportunity as well as we could,” he said. “Also, if one looks at our membership of Brics, the opportunities for development in Africa should be doubled, but the fact is that we are not learning from our Brazilian, Chinese and Indian counterparts on how to enter the African business arena successfully.” He said it was important to realise that real African opportunities were not limited to the SADC states, but there were more and more in Central, West and East Africa. “Our access to these African markets remains the biggest challenge as we cannot ship directly there – we have to go via international hubs. That places a major strain on transit time and this has cost implications,” he said. “It remains easier to reach West Africa from Brazil and easier to get to Mombasa from Sri Lanka. Until we have easier access to West and East Africa, we are going to find ourselves struggling to compete with the Asian and Brazilian companies who are on a major African drive.” According to Greiner, trucking remains the only option for much of the cargo destined for African states from South Africa but this is an expensive option and limited in its reach. “Of course, in many cases our trucking abilities to central Africa are very competitive and this is what is keeping our trade with Africa alive, but it is not an efficient mode of transport and only serves a limited radius.” He said there were many reasons why this situation had arisen – chief among them that the lines calling from South Africa to Africa directly had faded away over the years, limiting direct links. He pointed out that not a single shipping line was available directly from South Africa to Cameroon for instance, but shipping rates via Europe or Dakar were still fairly high in relation to cargoes from other parts of the world. “But it is in terms of time that we are losing out the most as in Africa it is of critical importance,” said Greiner. CAPTION ‘Trucking is what is keeping our trade with Africa alive.’