When Universal Africa
Lines (UAL), which fulfils
West Africa’s oil and gas
industries’ shipping needs, set up a
Cape Town office in May this year
(UAL South Africa), UAL CEO Roger
Jungblut described the initiative as a
strategic move to supply West Africa
from within Africa. Only weeks
passed before the booming economy
of Angola prompted a major transport
contract for the subsidiary.
“South Africa is especially
well placed to cement its growing
international stature on the back
of Angola’s rebuilding and the
continent’s accelerating emergence as
an economic bloc,” Jungblut said.
His use of the word “cement”
proved felicitous, because UAL
inked a deal in July with the US firm
Bechtel Construction to transport
cement from Cape Town to the
Angolan port Soyo for construction of
a major liquid natural gas plant. UAL,
which will transport 65 000 metric
tonnes of cement in all, won the tender
on the basis of years of experience
shipping construction supplies via
Soyo for Angolan projects.
UAL-SA runs a fortnightly shipping
supply route along the West African
coast. Its ports of loading are Durban
and Cape Town, and ports of call are
Walvis Bay, Lobito, Luanda (Sonils),
Soyo (site of the liquid natural gas
plant), Pointe Noire, Port Gentil, Onne
and Malabo
UAL-SA managing director Haakon
Røstad feels that SA is in the best
position to supply West Africa’s
import demands.
“While US and European
firms are gunning just as hard for
West African business, the South
African government has close intergovernmental
ties with many African
countries. It is an opportunity second
to none for local industry,”
Røstad said.
UAL-SA will enable SA shippers
to deal with a local entity now that
UAL, having shipped to West Africa
for 33 years, has added Cape Town
to its offices in Nigeria, Angola and
Equatorial Guinea.
In a recent development, UAL
opened a new office in Luanda in
partnership with a local company,
headed up by GM Monique Gubler.
Major deal ‘cemented’ on Cape Town-Soyo route
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