Air, sea and freight
forwarders get a share of lucrative R5-bn export deal
PORT ELIZABETH'S freight industry is already feeling the positive effects of Volkswagen's R5-billion export deal and an export order for 55000 engines a year from Samcor's Ford engine plant in the city.
SAA Cargo has been freighting out pre-production models of the Volkswagen Golf 4s that will be sent to Britain and other right-hand drive markets.
The cars fit neatly onto a standard pallet says SAA area sales manager
Cargo, Sheldon Matthews. The first two vehicles were sent out on the same A-300 from Port Elizabeth and transhipped to a 747 in Johannesburg, after which they were flown to Frankfurt via Nairobi.
Matthews says there are already other spin-offs from the Volkswagen deal. Over the past week SAA Cargo has handled another two 18-ton shipments of exports to Frankfurt on behalf of Uitenhage-based Volks-wagen South Africa.
The freight agent was Birkart International, which opened its offices in Port Elizabeth less than a year ago. We do a lot of work for Volkswagen and we came up with the best package for the exports, says branch manager Nirend Bardal.
He says Birkart has become one of the leading airfreight exporters out of Port Elizabeth and has had to increase its staff levels.
The port of Port Elizabeth will also benefit from the extra traffic, with an additional 80 containers a day being loaded and unloaded when the Volkswagen export order reaches its peak next year. VWSA will be packing the built-up cars into the containers used to import the components.
Ford will also be exporting its engines in containers when production starts in September next year.
This will have little effect on container volumes says acting port manager Eddie Hill.
We expect the impact of the Ford project to be minimal, he says.
There are many empty containers available for export via the various shipping lines. This project will ensure the better utilisation of empty containers on the export route.
Portnet has the manpower, infrastructure and equipment to effectively handle both projects, he says.
BY ED RICHARDSON
