‘January port figures make for miserable reading’

The SA port figures released by Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) for January now show that the effects of the global slowdown have indeed had a noticeable impact on SA trade, according to Dave Watts, a Kwa Zulu Natal director of the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff). This follows an original article in the January 16 issue of FTW that suggested that – from an analysis of TNPA statistics for the last three months of 2008 – it appeared that the global crunch had had only “a relatively marginal impact on SA’s trade”. In his message in reaction to this article, Watts mentioned that the full TEU landed and shipped figures for January, both Durban and national, would give a better idea of where volumes were tracking. With the January figures now in hand, he told FTW: “Unfortunately, they make for pretty miserable reading”. He noted that the most disturbing aspect was the drop in export volumes – with Durban experiencing a fall of almost 40% year-on-year. “We can expect that national financial statistics will reflect this when trade balance figures become available,” Watts said. “With a drop in volumes of this magnitude impacting on all port stakeholders, we can expect that there will be some fall-out in the marine industry in this country. “But, though companies will have to constrain their costs, the retention of skills should remain a priority in every area.”