SA FLIRTING WITH RECESSION

A better time ahead or not

is a question teasing the

minds of most executives

in the freight industry in

all its forms.

The answer from Luke

Doig is getting close to a

negative.

“Formal liquidations

of firms in the transport,

storage & communication

sector accounted for 4.2%

of all closures in 2013 (100

out of 2374),” he told FTW.

“That changed to 4.1% in

2014 (85 out of 2064) and

3.9% in 2015 (76 out of

1962).

“In January this year

there were three failures in

the logistics industry, on

a par with the situation a

year ago.”

According to Doig,

one challenge for freight

forwarders is the extent to

which their balance sheets

can sustain the higher

import values given ZAR

weakness.

“So,” he added, “given

the challenging immediate

economic outlook, we

are going to flirt with

recession in the coming

quarters and importers

may find their cash flows

being stretched.