Packing specialist calls for greater customer focus from TPT

As foreign ports such as Maputo and Walvis Bay slowly whittle away Transnet Port Terminals’ business, with customers intent on going elsewhere if they’re able to obtain better deals, lack of customer-focused service is one of the criticisms levelled against the parastatal. Dave Johnson, the director and majority shareholder of Edgin, Cape Town-based packers and unpackers of specialised container loads, points to Transnet’s virtual ports monopoly and questions sound ongoing annual profits. “Their profit could be and should be less because if they dropped their level to attract more cargo it would amount to a much bigger sum or parts for all of us in the industry. “The problem relates more to managing a problem, not simply putting in an extra reach stacker or RTG, and about relating to one’s customers, which is where TPT fails dismally. “Their attitude, unlike what one would expect in a supermarket chain, is quite bombastic and they fail to understand trade will simply not happen in that event, to the detriment of us all.” Johnson, with extensive seagoing experience on Unicorn and Safmarine vessels as well as in marine surveying, founded Edgin five years ago, an investment of close to R20 million. Costly, you might say, but it relates to substantial overheads such as leasing specialised equipment, honing employee skills to meet the needs of this particular trade, and rental costs for a 16 000m2 site at Culemborg – a stone’s throw from the port – where up to 500 FEUs are handled each day. The company, also operating a smaller branch in Port Elizabeth, focuses on major export briefs such as timber logs to the furniture industry in Vietnam and China, and stuffing containers with 12-metre long steel reinforcing bars and other steel products for East, West Africa, Mauritius and other destinations. Edgin also imports timber, mainly Indonesian meranti, for the building industry (windows, door frames and the like), for which it leases 11 000m2 of space at Cape Town’s FPT terminal. “Our strength is in packing and unpacking specialised stuff, not just putting a box in a box,” says Johnson. “When I relocated to Cape Town, it seemed there were no specialised packing operations similar to those in Durban.” Johnson says the past 12 or so months have been “very tough” due to the strength of the rand which has hurt export-oriented companies. “Our levels are a lot better than they were six months ago but it’s hard to predict whether or not this is an endof- year rush. Only time will tell.”