SOUTH AFRICA's three-week transport strike has left the industry to cope with a four- to six-week job of clearing the cargo backlog and replacing ZAR60 million (US$7.8 million) of damaged railway equipment.
The strike involved several train derailments and train burnings as well as rail yard damage, reported the Cape Times. Overall, costs are put at ZAR7 billion, with the perishable exports being the hardest hit with losses standing at ZAR650 million.
Mozambique's Port of Maputo may emerge as the winner and stands to siphon off citrus cargo from Durban in the future as it was good to citrus exporters during the strike, and may well be rewarded by becoming South Africa's port of choice for the citrus sector, said Lloyd's List of London.
South Africa's purchasing managers' index fell in May to its lowest level since November as the economy's recovery from last year's recession began to ease, said Kagiso Securities, according to Bloomberg.
The seasonally adjusted index slid to 51.1 from 55.2 in April, Johannesburg-based Kagiso said. The PMI has been above 50, which indicates an expansion in factory production for seven consecutive months.
"Safmarine's dedicated recovery team has assessed the impact on services and at this point anticipates the backlog will be cleared in four to six weeks," the carrier said.
Mervin Webb, purchasing manager for South African aluminium products fabricator Hulamin, said first the import containers were moved out of Durban after the strike ended with reefers being the only export boxes on the move. Dry export had to wait and did not start move until earlier this week.
"Exporters have been working with service providers to continue packing containers during the strike and there was a huge build-up of containers ready for export with ships standing out at anchor waiting for berths outside congested ports," Mr Webb said.
South Africa's jobless rate of 25.2 per cent is the highest of 62 countries tracked by Bloomberg.
Source : HKSG, 05.06.10.
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