I am severed from my homeland by the cold ocean of my own disdain, and have not visited England for over half a decade; a recent trip did nothing to inspire in me thoughts of a permanent return. For instance, the UK must house some of the worst looking females I have ever seen. As everyone knows, the most beautiful women in the world are Rhodesian, closely followed by S Africans. The problem is not genetics; England founded both countries and the Empire's gene pool is as well established over here as there. No, the climate is the reason; there is no motivation to look good when you spend 7/8ths of the year swaddled in jumpers and anoraks and the brightest thing in the sky is a 60 watt light bulb. Our weather causes us to dress lightly which in turn forces some attention to diet, gym and tanning, which in turn develops the whole look great/feel great attitude. The UK does seem to employ some intelligent guys, however; the toilet cleaner at Heathrow was obviously a classical scholar, as he only spoke Greek...
I increasingly suspect that the secret of not going mad is to resist the temptation to take everything that happens in the shipping industry to its logical conclusion. Bunkers are currently around $160, which is not hugely off last October's level of $130 at which time cartels were formed, toys were thrown out of cots and BAFs of disparate and unexplained percentages ranging from 4 - 14% were forced upon shippers. Bearing in mind the large drop (from $220) there is still no sign of a reduction or justification of charges, although MSC have made a recent effort. Worse, nobody seems to have woken up to the fact that most lines buy fuel forward in the same way that trading companies take cover on currency, especially in a rising market; where is this saving (or at least stability) reflected? Why is there not a negative CAF, reflecting the strength of the USD in purchasing SARs, EUROs or DMs for local disbursements? All these currencies have come well down over the same period, yet the shipper has been given no corresponding benefit. Is it just me, or is it just a case of Those that the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad....
My birthday, sandwiched as it is between Hitler's and Shakespeare's, occurred whilst I was overseas and therefore celebration on the scale to which I am accustomed was somewhat difficult. The Rivonia Vatican treated it as a moveable feast and I lunched not wisely but too well on Friday at the Butchers Shop with the lads; they even brought their own waiter. Carl Durrant tried to pass off a mediocre curry prior to my departure overseas as his contribution, whilst Simon Avis was away inspecting his branch office in that glorious Marxist Workers Paradise to the north of us. Alan Ainscow managed to drag himself further than the pubs situated 5 metres from his office door and ventured as far as Giovanni's for pasta, which proceeded to give him a dose of the two-bob bits later in the evening. MCL step up to the plate tomorrow lunchtime, Andre Wissler has the night shift on Wednesday, MACS are conspicuous by their absence and La Lossau will doubtless arrange her traditional dinner party upon her return from Europe; in addition, I have Andre Swanepoel from Bridge Marine on Friday coupled with a braai at Wayne Gunning's office in the evening. Who said a shipping manager's life was all work?...
I almost choked when I read some of ASL Chairman Alan Rolfe's comments regarding Portnet's tariff increases. For those who missed the FTW article, here are some of the gems; with a 5-6% rise, Portnet is trying to kill the golden goose that lays the eggs and it annoys us that Portnet think this annual rise should just be automatic. For those shippers who actually inhabit planet Earth, container carriers have in the last 6 months increased rates to Europe (50%), USA (30%) and the Far East (up to 100%); bunkers aside (which are not included) the breakbulk freight increases (a modest 10-15%) make Portnet's 5% look not too bad, but this is not the point.
The lines never seem to grasp that the goose is the receiver, not the shipper and certainly not the carrier; if we can't export goods from S Africa at a competitive price then we don't have a market and we can all go home. As for an automatic annual increase, I agree with Alan - which is probably why the lines manage 2 or 3 increases a year...
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