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FREIGHT & TRADING WEEKLY
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FRIDAY 9 October 2009 NO. 1883
New reefer service on SA-Europe route By Ray Smuts The irrepressible Ian Wicks is back in the shipping saddle, soon to launch a new weekly reefer service between South Africa and Europe. Deploying seven chartered vessels, the service is to be run by MBG Shipping, the trading arm of African Feeder Lines, a shelf company registered ten years ago by Wicks and long-time friend, Carl van der Westhuizen. The new venture is to be officially launched at a sushi affair on November 11, the first sailing from Cape Town on Wednesday, December 2. Port rotation for the fledgling service has been finalised, initially calling Cape Town, Tilbury, Rotterdam, Dakar and Cape Town, though Durban, Port Elizabeth and a third Cape Town call are to be incorporated at
a later stage for what will then be a 49-day round trip. Wicks told FTW he and Van Der Westhuizen had started thinking about this undertaking last October. A business plan was completed in July and approved by the FNB credit board. Wicks has often told this correspondent that were he to start a new shipping line, an investor would have to come up with US$70 million, but neither he nor Van Der Westhuizen is saying how much is at stake with the new offering. “It’s a very serious business this and the capital at our disposal is enough to make it happen, so shippers need have no concern,” says Van Der Westhuizen, a fruit industry veteran. He adds: “The major shipping lines have been dominating the South Africa-Europe trade for a long time so our thrust
is to get our story direct to the originator of the freight, that is the fruit grower, because the carton (product) basically pays for everything. “Grower costs have steeply risen this past year, perhaps 30% or more, so many of the smaller farmers are effectively farming for nothing, which explains why everybody is really looking at cutting costs in the supply chain.” Van Der Westhuizen, who runs his own fruit business on a trade route other than South AfricaEurope, says sufficient reefer capacity out of South Africa has been a problem for years. “It’s the same scenario every year, a battle to get equipment (containers) and space and I personally have been bumped off ships, from time to time, every season.” So what is going to set MBG apart from the
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To page 12
Jodi Haigh ... targeted marketing.
Freight industry kicks off Transport Month in style FTW’s Jodi Haigh was one of the speakers at last week’s Transport Forum conference in celebration of Transport Month. Haigh focused on the value of specialist media in promoting products
and services to a targeted customer base. One of the central themes of the day’s presentations was the need to reduce logistics costs in South Africa. See full story on page 11.
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