Although shipowners and agents are estimating seafreight cargo volume drops of up to 40%+ due to the global economic crunch, the latest Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) port system statistics reveal a more positive picture. To get an indication of SA’s seafreight trade patterns, FTW has used the TNPA figures for full TEUs landed deepsea (true imports) and full TEUs shipped deepsea (true exports). These figures exclude empty boxes, coastwise cargoes and transhipment volumes – and give a true reflection of the international cargo volume situation as far as the SA port system is concerned. Comparing 2008 figures to those for 2007 showed that the overall trend in the movement of full containers at SA ports was actually a growth of 5.4% yearon- year – with a total of 2 230 041 full boxes handled in the calendar year of 2008 compared to 2 115 702 in 2007. The figures read: Full deepsea landed in 2007 was 1 250 857 TEUs, compared to 1 228 076 TEUs in 2008 – a drop of -1.8%. Full deepsea shipped in 2007 was 864 845 TEUs compared to 1 001 971 TEUs in 2008 – an increase of +15.8%. To get an idea of the more current trend, FTW used the full deepsea landed and shipped figures for October, November and December, 2008. (See table). Full boxes landed deepsea in October fell by 3% month-onmonth (m/m) in November, and 29.5% m/m in December. Full boxes shipped deepsea in October fell by 17.64% m/m in November, and by 1.54% m/m in December. The overall number of full boxes handled fell a total of -26.47% October to December. FTW has to note that this period of the year normally shows a slowdown toward year-end, and it is hard to say how much of the overall drop was attributable to the economic slowdown. Perhaps the TNPA figures for January will be more revealing.
