Doubts over feasibility of proposed RB logistics park

There is some doubt about the feasibility of the proposed 230-hectare logistics park at Empangeni, designed to serve Richards Bay (FTW February 25, 2011). Any future it has would be dictated by containerised cargo, according to a senior executive in the freight industry. And members of the logistics industry don’t develop such centres then wait for the cargo to come to them. “We follow the demand,” said the FTW source. “Not the other way round. You don’t put together a project and expect the demand to come to you,” He saw only two saving graces for the new logistics park. “Any viable logistics park has to be near a major container port to produce the volumes it would need to justify it,” he added. It might work, if Richards Bay wass chosen as the second port to Durban, taking all the future overflow of containers from there; and if Transnet decides to build a full-scale rail link from Gauteng to Richards Bay – designed to carry container traffic. This might happen, depending on what government decides. But the present-day focus at Richards Bay is purely on bulk cargoes, and the current rail link is dedicated to the transport of coal.