Major deal ‘cemented’ on Cape Town-Soyo route

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.