Port stats reflect export concern

The port figures for November have just been released by Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) – and make a good read, at least superficially. But dig a little below the surface of the stats and there’s a piece of bad news for SA exports. The bulk shipping brigade are keeping busy, with 15 811 191-tons handled in November compared to 13 587 802-t in October. The coal exports out of Richards Bay held up – with over 7-mt being exported each month. But exports of iron ore out of Saldanha slipped quite a bit, with just over 2.5-mt moving in November, compared to 3.5mt in October. Breakbulk movement also stayed steady, with 1 098 416-t handled in November (602 100-t through Durban, and 259 327-t through RB) compared to 1 054 631-t in October (533 548-t Durban, 349 195-t RB). But it’s in the stats for the movement of twenty-foot equivalent unit (teu) containers that the export shock for November is hidden. The figures for imports in November, the height of the peak season, also fell off. The total of 122 577-teus landed deepsea (imports) in the month was down on October’s 134 900-teus. And, although the 15 147-teus landed empty was down on October’s 24 147, the total landed full (107 430-teus) was also down on October’s 110 253-teus. But exports are the bad news. In October, 122 644-teus were shipped out deepsea (exports) with only 47 147-teus empty boxes being relocated and 75 497-teus shipped full. However, for November, although a higher figure of 134 163-teus shipped deepsea, of these 71 987 were empties – actually considerably more than the 62 176-teus that were shipped full of export goods. So, imports of containerised trade goods into SA fell off over 2.5% in one of the traditional peak months of the year, while exports from SA fell a more imposing 17.6% over October.