‘Lack-lustre year for volumes’

The SA-Far East trade is not a moneymaker, according to Glenn Delve, marketing director of MSC. “Freight levels this year have been quite poor,” he told FTW. Even eastbound (export trade), which has picked up with China’s almost insatiable demand for mineral raw materials, and which has also been perked up in other export categories because of the low rand exchange rate, didn’t meet up with any enthusiasm from Delve. “Also quite poor really,” he said. He did admit that the rather unexciting pre- Christmas peak season this year had brought things up to a “fair” level. But, although international economic conditions have begun to pick up from the recession of the last two years, he was loath to talk about any sort of boom in 2014. “I don’t know what it will be like after the Chinese New Year (February),” he added. “But at least they (the Chinese) will always need commodities.”