Since its entry into the South African market in November last year, Breadbox Shipping Lines is set to establish a long-term presence in the country by leveraging off the increasing demand for project cargo, breakbulk and heavy lift ocean freight, according to the company’s founder and managing director, Joris Bakker.
“Breadbox specialises in these types of freight movements and the African continent has countless projects on the go in the mining, oil and gas, and large civil works sectors,” he told FTW.
And while projects were often delayed and postponed, there remained “huge scope” for growth, he added.
“The idea is to complete the multipurpose (MPP) service package for the West African market offering an MPP sailing out of Europe, intra-Africa and now out of South Africa,” explained Bakker. He said this was part of an overall strategy where Breadbox would link South, East and West Africa. He conceded that the South Africa (SAF) to West Africa (WAF) route was currently not sufficiently stable to warrant the deployment of vessels on this route permanently.
“We believe there is growth potential and hope to eventually expand the current charter service we offer.” He added that Breadbox covered the full range of load ports in South Africa and Namibia. “We cater for breakbulk shipments, bulk shipments, heavy lifts, project cargo as well as IMO and SOC containers,” he said.
The company’s growth strategy included “being reasonable” on margins and rather looking at long-term cooperation with clients, versus short-term gain on higher margins, he added.
“We are in it for the long-run and will rather be patient and wait for the tough times to turn around.”
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Breadbox covers the full range of load ports in South Africa and Namibia. –Joris Bakker
