Industry major expands African footprint

SHIPPING AND logistics group Grindrod is
expanding its footprint in Africa in its various
roles as ships operator and agents, clearing and
forwarding agents, project cargo managers,
warehouse operator, port and terminal operator
and railway operator in-and-around the southern
sub-continent.
An example of its overborder activities is
the 12% stake Grindrod holds in Maputo Port
Development Company (MPDC), operating the
main port in Mozambique which – with an
annual cargo throughput of 6.6-million tonnes
– now handles more ships and trade than the
ports at Dar-es-Salaam, Beira, Port Elizabeth or
Cape Town.
Grindrod has already invested some
US$25-m (about R177.15-m) in the port and
intends to invest a further US$80-m (R567-m)
over the next three years.
Included in this is a 95% ownership of the
Maputo coal terminal, where phase 1 of the
development programme will bring the terminal
to a throughput capacity of 3.5-m tons by end-
2007.
Grindrod also owns the Maputo car terminal,
due to be completed in December and with an
initial annual throughput capacity of 63 000
cars, to be ultimately increased to 250 000 cars.
It is also funding the expansion of the
ferrochrome slab, as it is expected that the
export of ferrochrome will increase over the
next few years – an increased demand that has
already started, according to international press
reports.
The Moma project, a contract won by
Röhlig Grindrod in
2005, is now nearing
completion. The project
involved a US$220-
m mineral-sands
processing facility
being developed in the
remote and completely
unserviced area inland
of the coastal village of
Moma, approximately
650-kilometres north
of Beira.
In its guise as a railway operator, Sheltam
Grindrod is now established in Zimbabwe,
Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi, Swaziland,
Botswana, Namibia, and Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC) – and owns and operates
the largest privately owned fleet of mainline
locomotives in Southern Africa. Sheltam
Grindrod also has a fully developed aviation
operation which includes air charter for
executives travelling to various African countries.
Noting the huge demand for sulphur in
“the Copperbelt” in Zambia and DRC, Grindrod
Terminals has contracted to handle the bulk
of it through, Richards Bay, Maputo and Dar es
Salaam.
As part of this, the group established Grindrod
Tanzania Limited (GTL) in Dar es Salaam in July
this year – with the sulphur movement as prime
objective.
Within a year,
GTL will also be
moving sulphur to
the huge uranium
mine at Kayalekera in
north-eastern Malawi,
and will also handle
associated bulk
products (such as lime).
Grindrod Terminals
is also developing its
API Holdings terminal company Walvis Bay bulk
terminal (WBBT) in Namibia – and has just taken
on an additional 18 000m2 of bulk storage land
area from the port authority, Namport. This is
adjacent to the current terminal’s storage yard and
is being rehabilitated and prepared to ISO 14001
standards.
Another subsidiary, Atlas Trading and Shipping,
has a joint-venture in Malawi, acquiring between 25
000 and 30 000-metric tonnes of grains, oilseeds
and pulses a year – cleaning, grading and re-bagging
the products for supply to mostly NGOs in Malawi
along with exports to neighbouring countries.