Loss of major contract forces terminal closure

RAY SMUTS FRESH PRODUCE Terminals, South Africa’s largest portside handler of cooling facilities for fresh export produce, has captured the total Cape Town business of specialised reefer operators NYKLauritzenCool and Seatrade from rival Southern African Fruit Terminals. SAFT effectively closed down its Cape Town and Durban terminal operations in the Mother City and Durban last month but still maintains a number of other cooling operations. This means, in effect, that FPT now exclusively represents what are probably two of the main specialised reefer carriers from South African ports, as well as Maputo in Mozambique. “The combined business of NYKLauritzenCool and Seatrade accounts for about 40% of our total business in all ports, of which Cape Town alone will account for about 140 000 pallets,” says a clearly delighted Danie Maartens, MD of FPT. The first caller in terms of the new arrangement was the NYKLauritzenCool vessel Ivory Girl early in December, loading 3 576 pallets of grapes and plums for the UK.