Far East imports already exceed budgeted forecasts

Safmarine continually addresses imbalance challenges IMPORT VOLUMES, particularly from the Far East, show no sign of letting up in the short term with Safmarine’s import figures for 2007 already exceeding budgeted forecasts. That’s the word from Safmarine Kwazulu-Natal area manager, Greg Rohrs, who says import figures are far higher than for the same period last year, “and we’ve not yet reached peak season.” He believes the introduction of additional capacity (through the deployment of the Safmarine Meru, Mulanje and Mafadi on the trade) and new port calls on the South Africa – Far East (Safari) route are partly responsible for this increased business. “The revamped Safari 1 and 2 services have increased trade with the East by offering additional capacity and four weekly calls to China, one of South Africa’s fastest-growing trading partners.” Rohrs says that while a growing number of shipping lines has shown an interest in the trade, Safari is the only service to offer two sailings a week to four key Chinese ports. And despite the strength of imports, Safmarine continues to focus on creating a more balanced trade with the East, regularly investigating ways of addressing this imbalance, he said. “Growing our exports to the East is important because the repositioning of equipment remains a challenge for both shippers and shipping lines, particularly on the Safari service where export cargo tends to be shipped in 20 foot containers and import cargo in 40 footers.”