TERRY HUTSON AFTER FOUR years at the helm of one of southern Africa’s largest and oldest ships agency firms, Rennies Ships Agency, managing director Laurie Smith will be stepping down at the end of April to “enjoy a good rest and spend more time with my family.” Looking back over his 40 year career Smith says that it spanned an extraordinary period. In this time the industry moved from using hand-driven facit and banda machines in the sixties to the sophistication of modern EDI systems of today. Shipping patterns went through a series of dramatic changes – from the mail service and conventional ‘tweendeckers of the sixties, to containerised trades and the new ports of Richards Bay and Saldanha in the seventies, to the introduction of reliable regular bulk parcel services and specialised carriers of the eighties. “Volumes and sophistication increased exponentially all the way,” he says. Smith is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of 25 years standing, past president of Asabosa and served on the national council for 20 years. He was also the first chairman of the Breakbulk Liner Operators Forum (Blof) and the founder chairman of the National Port Users’ forum (NPUF).
