"South Africa Shipping Report Q2 2011" is now available at Fast Market Research

May 5, 2011 - PRLog -- The South African shipping sector is set to undergo a period of muted growth over the next five years to 2015. The latest port statistics from the South African Transnet National Ports Authority show November to have been one of the busiest months ever recorded for South African ports, if not the busiest ever, with a number of facilities reporting record throughput. However, this was not the case across the board, with the latest port investments continuing to underperform. BMI notes that two of the outperformers were tied to the Chinese demand story. The ports of Saldanha, South Africa's only iron-ore export terminal, and Richards Bay, location of the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), released good figures. BMI believes that these ports will continue to be South African outperformers in 2011, as Chinese demand for iron ore and coal continues to grow unabated.

Headline Industry Data

* 2011 Port of Durban container throughput growth forecast at 5.08% and to average 8.22% over the mid term (2011 to 2015)
 * 2011 Port of Durban tonnage throughput growth forecast at 1% and to average 2.2% to 2015
 * 2011 South African total trade real growth forecast at 4.25% and to average 6.95% to 2015.


Key Industry Trends

East London Port Reaps Rewards Of Autos Boom. Autos production in East London, South Africa, is providing a boon for the city's port, with the facility's throughput closely correlated to the nation's export of cars. BMI believes that with a local vehicle manufacturer having recently won a large export programme there is upside potential to our already favourable throughput forecast. According to the latest data released by Transnet, January 2011 saw a year-on-year increase of 26% in the handling of fully built units (FBUs), from 37,472 FBUs in January 2010 to 50,513 this year. This growth in FBU handling is reflected in the port's total tonnage throughput growth last year, which grew by 17.05%, from 1.8mn tonnes in 2009 to 2.1mn tonnes in 2010. BMI notes that this more than regained the 9.4% loss in throughput experienced during the downturn in 2009. East London does not only benefit from the export of automobiles through its ro-ro facilities exporting finished products. The port also has a lot of container traffic driven by the import of parts for the local industry, and this has also resulted in good growth, which shot up by 31.45% last year.

NCT Ready To Expand Operations. South Africa's Ngqura Container Terminal (NCT) is already looking to expand operations only after a year of its commercial launch, reported Port Strategy in December. The NCT was planning to extend the facility by 100m, which would enable it to simultaneously accommodate two 305m vessels. The expansion work was expected to be completed by July 2011. The terminal also offers the possibility of dredging works and construction of two additional berths, which will make it a four-berth facility with the capacity to handle 2mn 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per annum. Port throughput at South African ports was steadily improving through 2010. Despite the growth of traffic at the Port of Ngqura (up sixfold from its January 2010 throughput of 3,450TEUs to 46,836TEUs in August 2010), BMI had some reservations about how sustainable this pace of growth would be compared with the country's other ports.

Latest Port Investments Continue To Underperform. The latest port statistics were released in December by South African Transnet National Ports Authority. BMI notes that although November appeared to have been one of the busiest months ever recorded for South African ports, if not the busiest ever, with a number of facilities reporting record throughput, this was not the case across the board, with the latest port investment continuing to underperform. BMI noted that two of the outperformers were tied to the Chinese demand story. The ports of Saldanha, South Africa's only iron-ore export terminal, and Richards Bay, location of the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), released good figures. Saldanha's throughput was up 8.2% in November, having risen from 1.03mn tonnes to 1.13mn tonnes. Year-on-year (y-o-y) the improvement was even starker, having climbed 39.3% from 3.68mn tonnes in the year-ago period.

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Fast Market Research is an online aggregator and distributor of market research and business information. We represent the world's top research publishers and analysts and provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available.