The acquisition of the full
shareholding in Ocean Africa
Container Lines (OACL) falls
into line with Grindrod’s
strategy of providing an
integrated service offering for
the movement of containerised,
dry-bulk, liquid bulk and
wheeled cargoes, according to
Captain Dave Rennie, CEO of
Grindrod Freight Services.
And providing this
integrated offering will
obviously mean a close link-up
of OACL with other parts of
the group, added Mahmood
Simjee, newly appointed CEO
of OACL.
“In operating a feeder
service to all international
mainline carriers, ships
domestic and regional cargo,
we are providing customers
with a complete freight
logistics service – including
warehousing, distribution and
inland transportation,” Simjee
told FTW.
This will link the line with
Grindrod Intermodal, which
will provide landside services
including trucking and
warehousing.
At the same time OACL
links up with the group’s
terminals division when
berthing at Maydon Wharf
in Durban. Said Simjee:
“Here we tie in with
Grindrod’s warehousing,
depot and terminal facilities.
This provides us with the
undercover and open areas and
equipment for handling and
storing dry-bulk cargoes in
breakbulk and containerised
forms and liquid bulk in tank
containers.
“It also allows us room for
stacking the OACL containers
on the Maydon Wharf.”
A final link-up for OACL
is with the group subsidiary
King & Sons, which gives the
line access to the company’s
full ship’s agency range of
products.
In the shareholding
acquisition deal, Grindrod
Holdings purchased
Safmarine’s 51% share of
OACL for an undisclosed
amount. The transaction has
since been approved by the
Competition Tribunal and the
SA Reserve Bank (SARB), and
OACL is now a wholly owned
subsidiary.
CAPTION
Dave Rennie ... in line with
Grindrod strategy.
