Volatile market demands flexible solutions

In the competitive mining environment delivering top quality service at the best possible price remains one of the biggest challenges, according to Joost Hogewoning, business manager in 4PL’s minerals division. To stay on top of its game the company has invested heavily in its minerals division by expanding the service bouquet to include larger capacity for rail and warehousing, as well as import and export services. “The trends we have been used to during the past decade no longer exist,” said Hogewoning. “Usual f luctuations and cycles in volume movement and pricing seem to have been completely wiped out. The markets have become extremely volatile and remain soft across the board.” But, he said, they did expect an increased level of stability, which is good. “We experience the same trends as our customers do in terms of the state of the industry. Hence the logistics industry is continuously challenged to evolve and to become more and more creative in terms of new solutions, strategies and cost management,” he said. Clear evidence is the fact that volumes have grown considerably since the expansion of the company’s warehousing capacity and implementation of more rail solutions. “The volume throughput in our business has grown by almost 150% compared to 12 months ago. We have also expanded our road transport offerings into Africa, which has been very successful. The volumes in this section of our business have nearly doubled since June 2013.” INSERT & CAPTION Usual fluctuations and cycles in volume movement and pricing seem to have been completely wiped out. The markets have become extremely volatile. – Joost Hogewoning