‘Weak rand could address trade imbalances’

Businesses with a “unique split”
between their import and
export services may yet weather the
current economic storm if they can
push their exports up on the back
the current exchange rate, according
to Willie Nel, managing director of
ZacPak.
“The ongoing weakening of the
rand against other major global
trading currencies could see a
levelling of the current import/
export imbalance,” he said.
“Landlocked countries need to
be serviced from somewhere and
our Gauteng operations are well
situated to continue expansion in
those regions,” said Nel, adding that
Gauteng was also a “good base of
operations” for cross-border traffic,
offering relatively short transport
legs to Botswana, Zimbabwe and
Namibia.
He told FTW that technologies,
such as information flow and
systems integration, should also be
better utilised to promote growth to
the province. “We will become more
competitive as a province – and a
country – if we simplify the means
to create data and share it, even via
wifi tracking or radio frequency
identification (RFID) technologies.”
Packing, handling and unpacking
depot company, ZacPak, is a wholly
owned subsidiary of CFR Freight,
with all divisions – CFR Freight’s
ocean freight, airfreight and express
divisions as well as ZacPak – now all
under one roof in Gauteng.