The SA-based global paper and dissolving wood pulp (DWP) manufacturer Sappi has chosen to ship some of its products through the DP Worldoperated container terminal in Port Maputo. According to Bruce Melrose, logistics manager for Sappi Paper and Paper Packaging, the company will route all DWP exports originating at its Ngodwana Mill in Mpumalanga through Maputo. Containers will be transported by Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) through to Ressano Garcia, the border between SA and Mozambique, where Mozambique Ports and Railways (CFM), joint-venture partner of DP World, will be responsible for carrying the containers the rest of the way to Maputo. It was a logical decision, Melrose told FTW, with Ngodwana being a brown-field expansion that started producing last year. The distance between Ngodwana and Maputo is only 250 kilometres, he added, compared to about 750kms to Durban. Also, the shipping lines that pick up export products from the three Sappi mills in the Durban area also agreed to make calls at Maputo for the Ngodwana product. “Another good thing,” said Melrose, “is that the shipping costs are lower, and there’s also reduced damage because the DWP is only handled once – direct from the production line to the containers, and off it goes. “Also, because it’s a bulk product, it complies with our responsibility to keep goods on rail.” And for those of you who, like FTW, thought that pulp is used to make paper, it might come as a surprise that the export product, DWP, “makes almost anything but paper”. According to an FTW study, dissolving pulp is used in production of regenerated cellulose. INSERT The distance between Ngodwana and Maputo is only 250kms compared to about 750kms to Durban. – Bruce Melrose
