‘Leaning toward the bullish side’

As the shipping industry’s slow recovery begins, one of the big challenges right now is returning to reasonable levels of profitability, says Safmarine’s Africa region executive, Jonathan Horn. “We need to ensure we are remunerated fairly for the product and service we deliver. “We are seeing rates lifting off the lows experienced in 2009 in many of the trades – but in many instances these are well below the levels they need to be,” he told FTW. “Rates, which are clearly dependent on the level of competition, do need to go up in Africa (and other trades too) and we need to ensure we achieve rate levels that will allow us to sustain and evolve the services we provide to our customers.” Africa remains a core sector for the carrier, with trades touching the continent accounting for approximately 55% of its total global business. “No question the recession has impacted on Safmarine’s Africa business although we’re still seeing growth in West Africa and to a lesser extent East Africa. “The carriers have all felt the same pressure but my gut feel is we will certainly see an uptick during the second half of the year, so I would lean more toward the bullish side.”