THERE ARE a number of distinctly developing container consolidation markets, according to Peter Sands, m.d. of Ecu-Line.
This has seen new services into SA being opened within the Ecu-Line network - from Brazil, Portugal, Sweden, USA and China.
These new routes have tripled his company's turnover, Sands told FTW.
And of them, China he marks as developing in a big way.
China, he said, is becoming more globally acceptable as a source of manufactured goods.
Because of its low labour costs, it has become a major international player - with all sorts of foreign investment pouring into the country.
Brazil, Sands reckons, has now pulled out of its recent recession.
It is now generating all sorts of traffic for SA, and elsewhere in the region - like Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Mauritius.
And Sands has recently been successfully promoting Durban as the Ecu-Line hub transit point for this Brazilian traffic destined for these other African/Indian Ocean states.
He has put a similar focus on transit cargo from Sweden and Portugal.
Portugal is now using Durban as a hub into these same countries, he said, moving from the original transhipment port of Antwerp.
Similarly, Sweden has also decided to move from Antwerp to Durban as its hub for goods bound for SA and the other destinations.
The USA business development has been motivated by another factor, Sands told FTW. We bought SA Fleet Lines last December, he said, and this has led to a big increase in cargo coming in from the USA.
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