Container repairs will be effected speedily
writes Ray Smuts
CALL THEM the smaller guys, the niche operators if you will, for that is exactly what Container Gateway to Africa, Cape Town's newest container depot, is all about.
Born out of a union between South Africa's Refrigerated Freight Lines and Belgium's Thornton and Company, Container Gateway to Africa officially opened its doors in Transnet Industrial Park, Maitland, last week.
Speaking to FTW shortly before Transport Minister Dullah Omar gave the new venture his blessing, Gilles van Strydonck, Antwerp-based chairman and managing director of Thornton, said he and some of his European partners had felt there was a need for a container depot in the Mother City because containers were being held up for weeks if not months over non-availability of spares.
This headache has now been eliminated as Container Gateway to Africa will have on site spares for a variety of refrigeration units - Carrier, Thermo King, Daikin, Seacold, Sabroe and Mitsubishi - including rails and structural spares for the reefer box itself, and will therefore be able to repair containers without delay and at substantial cost savings. "We have in the past noted shortfalls in repair standards to boxes leaving South Africa,' observes Van Strydonck.
He agrees South Africa is a "natural progression' for his company's tie-up with RFL - specialist in transporting controlled temperature cargoes - as Thornton has been active in Africa for 30 years, including Ivory Coast and Senegal.
"South Africa is very much involved with fresh produce and will continue to export, so in order to grow that potential one requires the best possible reefer structure.
"We see this as a first step into a country with many opportunities although we will remain close to our core business of reefers, but if our partners think other opportunities exist elsewhere in the country we will definitely look at them.'
In shipping for 20 years, Keith Bougaard, m.d. of Container Gateway to Africa, is unfazed by what amounts to a rather adequate container depot scenario in Cape Town - particularly since the opening in the last year or so of the S.A.T.I. depot at Killarney and MSC's facility in Maitland.
He stresses that the company will target niche markets - those smaller operators requiring a chilled cargo service and a specialist container repair service.
The new container depot comprises 12 000sq m of which 11 000sq m is concreted, including a 1 600sq m warehouse for dry cargo. The first phase has capacity for up to 1 200, 20-foot equivalent boxes and 120 plus points in the designated pre-trip inspection area.
Phase two calls for further expansion to 20 000sq m or more and a smaller on-site warehouse where fruit can be chilled overnight.
A feature of the premises is a dedicated container stacking area up to seven high for clients which allows easy access to a specific container without having to shuffle through the stack.
Container Gateway to Africa has appointed Ganief Barron, formerly with Safmarine logistics for 20 years, as general manager.
