‘Things looking up after a tough year’

It has been a real belttightening year for the country’s largest Container Freight Station (CFS), SACD Freight, with the phrase “cost-control” in the everyday vocabulary during what has been proved to be the toughest year for decades, according to MD Graham Peinke. “Volumes are significantly down on last year,” said Peinke, “both in terms of import unpack tons and the number of full containers handled.” Looking back at recent history, he added that the trading volumes to December 2008 were good – and in line with the buoyant trading experienced in the previous few years. “But,” Peinke said, “the first six months of this year (January to June) were tough, and our third quarter performance in July to September was even harder. “So we have focused a lot of attention on reducing our cost base this calendar year.” But one of the positives at SACD was that it has not had to reduce the size of its permanent labour force – and, in October, it had its best trading month for some time. “It is traditional for our volumes to pick up pre- Christmas,” Peinke said, “but they are nowhere near the volumes of last year. We are hopeful that the soccer World Cup will lift volumes next year.” He also refused to only see bad news, happily propounding that exports have performed reasonably well despite the strong rand. Peinke also noted that SACD had avoided being in purely tick-over mood during the year. Belt-tightening there may have been, but it was also accompanied by active development to meet the expected future needs in the market. “In Cape Town,” he said, “we will commission a 20 000-m2 warehouse in January 2010 to service beneficiated fruit exports (predominantly wine, fruit juices and canned goods) out of the Cape. “And we are optimistic that volumes will start to improve next year.”