IN LINE with the increasing growth and sophistication of the African trade market, the Grindrod Group's forwarding arm is restructuring its into Africa division.
The driving factor has been the rapid growth since the end of sanctions in 1992, said Jan Bekker, Africa development manager for the group. Trade with the entire continent has almost trebled since then - growing from R5,9-billion in 1992, to over R17,5-bn last year. The Southern African belt - comprising the six immediately neighbouring states outside the SACU (Southern African Customs Union) - gobbles-up almost 70% of South Africa's trade with Africa. In this sector, trade has grown almost 174% - from R4,4-bn in 1992 to 12,05-bn in 1996.
The African continent is now responsible for over 10% of SA's total trade, according to a Safto (SA Foreign Trade Organisation) market analysis, said Bekker. From a forwarder's viewpoint, we also have very large volumes of foreign transit traffic in-and-out of Africa, through SA as the hub, and also increasing at about 25% a year. With the Grindrod Group's agreement earlier this year with the Swiss-based multi-national, Danzas, this transit traffic segment is expected to grow significantly. The operation is now acting as the regional distributor for Danzas' African cargo, as well as its own volume of traffic in-and-out of the continent.
We are now also finding - after five years of rapidly increasing volumes - that the transport and freight forwarding procedures have also become more slick and sophisticated, said Bekker. To meet this market scenario, we have made a concerted effort to align the Africa division's services to the future demands. This will provide the group with the necessary services and rates procedures, and re-design our African agency partners into the most cost-efficient network possible. The new structure for Grindrod's African traffic sees the continent split into four operational divisions, in order of priority - neighbouring territories; East Africa and Indian Ocean Rim; West Africa; and North Africa. Each of these will be served by hubbing cargo volumes through the most appropriate centres, and through a regional web of agencies, each a specialist in its own national clearing and forwarding procedures. A lot of the strength in the intra-continental network will stem from SCAC-Delmas-Viljeux (SDV) - the major French freight-and-transport group which has a shareholding in Grindrod's holding company, Grincor.
SDV will service the agency partner needs in West Africa, for example, where it has a long-established history. In the three East African countries of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, Grindrod will work with an SDV subsidiary operation, Notco. And, in the Indian Ocean Islands, SDV will also service the group needs.
There is another in-house relationship in Mozambique, where Grincor's ships agency, King and Sons has formed an association with Mozambicuan group, Tertir - and where its Transnautica forwarding arm will merge with K&S.
In the northern neighbouring territories, the TransAf Trading and Freight group will act as agents in Zimbabwe, and Grindrod will also develop connections through TransAf into Malawi and Zambia. A benefit of the TransAf relationship is that group's extensive experience of moving internationally-sponsored aid projects into Central Africa.
We are looking to working with them in this forwarding sector as well, said Bekker.
