Shippers welcome chopped port tariff

In a move that will delight importers and exporters, Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) is set to chop about one billion rand off its port charges in the financial year 2012/13. According to President Jacob Zuma in his state of the nation address, the government has been looking at the necessity of reducing port charges, as part of reducing the costs of doing business. “The issue of high port charges,” he added, “was one of those raised sharply by the automotive sector in Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage during my performance monitoring visit to the sector last year.” Given this, Zuma announced that the SA Ports Regulator and Transnet had agreed to an arrangement that would result in exporters of manufactured goods receiving a significant decrease in port charges during the coming year, equal to about one billion rand in total. This, confirmed Riad Khan, CEO of the Ports Regulator (PR), would be a discount off the base rates. And, he added, the billion rand discount will obviously affect the tariff determination by the PR – where TNPA is currently looking for an 18.06% increase, but which Khan has already told FTW will be adjusted downwards. What will happen now, he added, is that TNPA will have a regulator-fixed increase in its port tariffs, and then the discount will also be applied. Due to be announced this week, the final figures, Khan has assured FTW, “will meet with the approval” of the freight industry.