Namibia’s ascendancy as a logistics hub that could change sub-Saharan freight flow, possibly to the detriment of the road-andrail corridor north from the Port of Durban, has received yet more confirmation from the unlikeliest of countries – Chile. Addressing a gathering of business representatives at the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry last week, Chilean trade commissioner Hernan Gutierrez sketched a detailed picture of sectors in which his country excelled, particularly copper. But when he was asked whether Chile, the world’s biggest miner of the highconductive mineral, was aware of Namibia’s plans to bulk up throughput of raw mineral exports from the copper belt area in Zambia and the DRC destined for South America, Gutierrez seemed caught off guard. “I can’t say for sure how it may affect us,” he said to a question about the overtures Namibia has made to ship African copper out to Brazil whose emerging market hunger for the metal seems to exceed its own supply. And although there’s no certainty about how successful the Walvis Bay Corridor Group was during a marketing exercise to Brazil earlier this year, coming as it did a few months before portside capacity upgrades worth R4.2 billion came online at Walvis, Gutierrez inadvertently confirmed that Namibia had astutely sussed out cross-Atlantic exportimport opportunities. “I’ll have to ask my colleague in São Paulo but I have to say, Chile’s exports of copper are for the most part made up of copper concentrate, finished product to tech manufacturing markets in South Korea, China, and Japan.” The view by Gutierrez that Namibia most likely looked at several angles to link its escalating logistics network with markets in Brazil was confirmed by Mike Schussler, economist and logistics analyst. “Namibia has a very good chance of becoming the shortest route for cargo out of landlocked countries in Africa. Dry bulk and container ships using Walvis Bay will most likely go up and it’s very likely that copper from Zambia and the DRC going out through that harbour will increase tremendously.” He added that once certain hinterland linkages were up and running, such as the bridge at Kazungula which should speed up transport through Livingstone, potentially cutting out Zimbabwe entirely, the momentum of freight going through Walvis Bay was likely to pick up. “South Africa’s congestion issues in the Port of Durban and our xenophobic treatment of people working in transport is also making it easier for Namibia to play a much bigger role as a preferred provider of logistics in sub-Saharan Africa.” Schussler furthermore added that it had become clear that despite Chile’s relative proximity to Brazil, African copper passing through Namibia to South America’s east coast would be a far more cost-effective option. “Chile is simply too far to reach markets in Brazil. If they were to explore exporting raw copper to Brazil they will probably have to go south and then back north. Or maybe they could use the Panama Canal which is probably not big enough for vessel types required to carry copper.” Commenting on whether Chile could transport copper by road, Schussler said it would be far too costly. “It would take far too many trucks and, from a labour point of view alone, wouldn’t be feasible at all.” Besides, there’s also the also the not-so-little problem called the Andes. Gutierrez pointed out that, for the time being, Chile was quite content to focus on supplying copper concentrate to tech-cluster manufacturers in Asia. And as South Africa struggles to solve issues that often violently disrupt its logistics sectors, Brazil’s growing copper need, it seems, is ripe for the taking – by Namibia.
INSERT: I can’t say for sure how Namibia’s plans may affect us. – Hernan Gutierrez