A RATIONALISATION at Barwil ships agency followed the recent closure of the Wallenius-Wilhelmsen (W-W) line's ro-ro (roll-on, roll-off) service between US-SA-NZ and Australia.
We closed the Johannesburg office in February, with some mild staff cuts in Durban, said Barwil's line manager for W-W, Kevin Walker.
The focus now for the line is the twice-monthly calls of its car-carriers on the Europe-East London-Durban-Australia (all four main ports) and New Zealand run.
This is proving to be a growing market, both import and export, and is enough for W-W to still justify having a port captain in Durban to ensure the smooth running of the bus-stop car-carrying trade.
At present, the Durban car terminal is running full, said Walker, and not a lot of space available.
It's busy enough to keep about ten car-carriers a month calling at the port - both on the Far Eastern and European runs.
Barwil is currently talking to other potential principals, but Walker suggests that nothing is likely to be finalised before closer to year-end.
The agency is, however, even busier than usual on its tank tramp and non-liner business, he added.
Copyright Now Media (Pty) Ltd
No article may be reproduced without the written permission of the editor
To respond to this article send your email to joyo@nowmedia.co.za
