Import volumes register impact of Far East power

THE YEAR ahead is unlikely to provide any surprises in terms of growth on the Europe-Southern Africa trade, says Safmarine SA trades executive, Alex de Bruyn. “In fact we expect the southbound (Europe to South Africa) trade to remain pretty stagnant throughout the year, at best delivering modest growth in volumes.” According to De Bruyn SA’s 2007 import volumes from Europe were down on 2006, largely because more and more South African companies are switching their sourcing to the Far East. The drop-off in local car sales also impacted the trade, particularly during the second half of 2007. Dry exports also declined in 2007, largely as a result of a stronger rand and reduced export volumes from the automotive sector. On the other hand, reefer exports – both conventional and containerised – grew modestly and De Bruyn does not foresee significant growth in containerised reefer exports unless more reefer plug capacity is made available on board vessels. “Reefer-wise the Saecs vessels are extremely well utilised, particularly during the peak season. In many ways we have reached optimum utilisation on reefer plugs and we are presently not aware, both within Saecs and amongst the competition, of any anticipated announcement of reefer capacity increases for 2008.” While the SA-Europe trade may be one of South Africa’s more balanced routes when it comes to volumes, it has not escaped the cost implications of the equipment imbalance which plagues a number of South African trades. “It remains a challenge trying to fill the empty containers which are needed for re-export because South Africa still imports more dry cargo than it exports, and exports more containerised reefer cargo than it imports,” De Bruyn says. He also doesn’t anticipate any changes in service profile or vessel-wise for the Saecs core and intermediate services in 2008. “For the main, we expect the core service to continue to operate on a weekly basis with seven vessels while the intermediate service will resume its weekly service profile."