Container sales and rental
specialist Speedspace
Botswana has embarked
on a diversification strategy
in light of the slump in the mining
industry.
Founded in 1993, the company
has for the past two decades focused
on the provision of a variety of
pre-fabricated buildings to the
Botswanan market, mostly to the
mining and
construction
sectors.
“With the
recent, and
significant,
downturn in the
mining sector in
Botswana we have
been exploring
diversification
avenues to
broaden the revenue base and
leverage existing infrastructure to
take advantage of new opportunities,”
said director Barron Charsley. “The
two recent and most significant
developments come in the form of
offering shippers own containers
(SOCs) to importers to reduce total
freight costs, and the option for
transporters to now lease containers
for cross-border use.”
According to Charsley, the SOC
business developed by Speedspace
affords freight forwarders and
importers the opportunity to take
delivery of an empty container at
the nominated port of load (with
Speedspace currently able to
offer containers at more than 115
different container ports globally),
to be used at a nominal cost when
shipping cargo into Botswana. Once
discharged and unpacked, the empty
containers can be turned in to the
Speedspace depot in Phakalane,
Gaborone.
“The net effect of this is that
importers no longer need to unpack
in South Africa for onward delivery
to Botswana, nor are they having to
pay demurrages, empty turn-in or
container repositioning fees,” he said.
The cross-border rental business
is not dissimilar to the SOC business
but allows truckers
and transporters
in southern Africa
to lease containers
from a variety
of depots in
Botswana, South
Africa, Zambia,
or Tanzania and
utilise them for
carrying cargo.
Although this
offering has been available for many
years, the significant difference in
what Speedspace was offering was
the option for clients to off-hire
containers in countries other than the
country in which they were on-hired,
explained Charsley.
“As an example, should a client
have cargo moving from Gaborone
to Kitwe, they are able to rent a
container from Speedspace in
Botswana and turn the empty
container in to Kitwe once
discharged.
“The Botswana economy is not in a
good state at present abd we envisage
a tough 12 months ahead. We believe
that unless companies are inventive
about the way they do business the
prospects for sustained growth
remain limited,” said Charsley.
INSERT
Importers no longer need
to unpack in South Africa
for onward delivery to
Botswana.
– Barron Charsley
CAPTION
Speedspace offers clients the option to off-hire containers in countries other
than the country in which they were on-hired.
Helping to save on repositioning costs
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