Demand for containers to Zambia unprecedented

Keeping up with the supply of containers to the Zambian freight market has been an ongoing challenge, says Aileen Ryan, marketing manager of Celtic Freight. “Summer rains, pilferage, security, cargo control, ease of packing... these are all reasons for cargo to be containerised. Celtic Freight has been hard pressed to turn its container fleet around on its Zambian service. The company has some 180 containers in its owned fleet, but is doing everything possible to turn this stock around to have available containers in Durban and Johannesburg for clients’ use,” says Ryan. “The usual reasons for containerising cargo and the added demand stemming from the shipping lines’ lack of flexibility and high demurrage charges on over-border containers have added to our customers’ requirements. Prior to Christmas we simply could not keep up with demand and unfortunately had to turn away bookings simply because of we didn’t have enough containers – all the worse because we had truck capacity to actually move this cargo.” But Celtic has caught up and containers are again available for Zambian cargo, she told FTW. Celtic offers a service to the forwarding industry where it unpacks shipping line containers under customs supervision at its Durban depot into owned containers. This means Durban turn-in is achieved, the desperate time constraints are alleviated and the cargo is still delivered to Zambia containerised. “Forwarders have enjoyed the benefits of cargo being removed from port, the shipping line box turned in and the final payments sorted out with their customer.”