‘Partnership solutions are the way to go’

South Africa’s supply chain costs within the boundaries of the country are too high when compared to major global trading partners, says Doug Duffy, divisional director of freight forwarding for the ICM Group. “While it has been top of the agenda for some time now to reduce supply chain costs in order to make South Africa more competitive, our costs are still too high.” Another major challenge, he says, is the age of our transport infrastructure. “Major investment needs to be made to bring our transport infrastructure up to acceptable levels. Our roads cannot sustain the volume of cargo moving between Johannesburg and Durban, as an example. There is no doubt rail will need to take up more volume than current levels.” The freight forwarding division of ICM focuses on end-to-end solutions for importers and exporters. According to Duffy, ICM has embarked on many exciting initiatives to partner with various key logistic providers to jointly come up with solutions to alleviate the various challenges faced. “The public enterprise minister recently advised that industry partnerships were required to solve some of the logistical challenges facing South Africa. The budget does not allow for government to foot this bill. ICM has always taken the stance to seek partnership solutions rather than just complaining about issues that affect our industry,” says Duffy.