Mining business pumps up the volumes

THRIVING CONSTRUCTION projects
springing up across Central and West
Africa have commanded increased air
and sea freight volumes, happily met by
Africa specialists Intraspeed.
“We have seen tremendous growth
over the last year,” says Claire Clark,
sales and marketing director for
Intraspeed South Africa. “Our turnover
doubled in the first four months of this
year and we expect this to continue
until December.”
Seafreight volumes moving to West
Africa - carrying mainly communications
equipment - have increased from 150
teus to more than 250 a month. “We
have expanded our service range to
include crating, bundling and packing of
this equipment,” adds Clark.
The company is involved in a number
of construction projects including various
hotels in Zanzibar, Ghana, Seychelles
and Rwanda, with experienced project
teams travelling with the cargo to these
destinations to ensure the smooth
handling and movement of cargo from
airport to site. “We also moved eight
B747/200F charters of prefabricated
banking halls to remote areas spread
throughout Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana
and Zanzibar,” adds Clark.
The mining industry has been an area
of remarkable growth for Intraspeed.
“Our mining volumes comprised 18%
of our airfreight business in March this
year, and in July our mining business was
close to 50% of our airfreight volumes.”
According to Clark the company
pioneered the setting up of an airfreight
hub in Entebbe, Uganda. “It’s ideal for
servicing the remote exploration sites
throughout Northern DRC, Tanzania,
CAR and Sudan.” It has also been
involved in a number of complete site
exploration and establishments in Gabon
and Southern DRC.
Addressing capacity problems,
especially to West Africa, Intraspeed has
signed block space agreements with
various carriers. “We have a similar
situation with our cargo into Entebbe.
Clearing at this hub is extremely smooth
and controlled, taking less than two
hours to clear and no more than three
hours to load. However, ports in West
Africa are extremely congested and
clearance and delivery can take as long
as seven days.
“Africa has its own unique
challenges and unless you have proper
representation in these areas it’s very
difficult to get an honest update on
what is transpiring on the ground,” says
Clark.