Shippers count the cost of port delays

The troubled introduction of
the Navis system at Durban
harbour has resulted in a
number of international
customers asking for “gate
price” of chemicals to ensure
swifter receipt of goods and
to prevent production delays,
says Sudesh Singh, the sales
and marketing manager of
Zinchem in Benoni.
Singh said the chemical
company had been forced to
carry orders from one month
to the next because of delays
at the harbour, resulting in
clients from the Middle East
and South Africa requesting
to carry the cargo they
purchase themselves.
“Taking the shipping and
transporting costs out of
our costs gives us very little
room to maximise returns
on our prices because we
traditionally offer services
as a package,” he said.
Although Singh says
Zinchem is not a “big”
exporter – on average it
exports around 200 tons of
chemicals a year – events at
the harbour since February
have been serious enough to
make a significant dent in
the company’s bottom line.
“As a company going
forward in the zinc industry,
we are looking at new
markets in South America
and Europe and here we
would be dealing with
multinationals who would
not accept irregular shipping
schedules from us,” he adds.
Zinchem invested in a
new zinc dust plant on the
East Rand last year and has
even sold its 2011 export
book but is incurring costs,
for example for storage,
when ships do not run on
time. “When dates are set
for example by our clients
in the Middle East, and they
don’t receive the chemicals,
then production is halted.
If you are in mining,
production grinds to a halt
until zinc dust gets to the
mine,” he says.
Singh says South African
commerce organisations
and the International
Zinc Association should
put pressure on harbour
authorities to fix the
problems urgently.