Who’s Moving What?

While energy-related heavy-lift equipment is the dominant cargo moving into West and Central Africa, the mix is becoming more diversified. So are the carriers.

UAL-SA is Universal Africa Line’s new South Africa-based branch. Along with UAL U.S.A. and UAL Europe, the lines concentrate on breakbulk and container service into West Africa, including Angola, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, for the oil and energy sector. UAL operates a fleet of 22 vessels and three landing craft.

From South Africa, UAL-SA also caters to the mining industry, carrying explosives, detonators and explosives for blasting and blasting sand, and also transports locomotives built in South Africa into the Congo, Managing Director Haakon Rostad said.

“We have soda ash projects coming up in DRC, railroads being built in Congo, ports being built in Ghana, other LNG plants and refineries,” he said.

Safmarine’s U.S.-West Africa multipurpose service focuses on oil and gas but also accepts cargo such as paper, resins, drilling mud and rolling stock. The 18,000-deadweight-ton vessels deployed in the regular monthly service call at Camden, N.J., Savannah, Houston, Tin Can Island, Onne, Douala, Luba and Abidjan, and at other ports on inducement. Other Safmarine multipurpose services have no fixed schedule and serve West Africa from all over the globe.

The bulk of the goods moving between the U.S. and West Africa on Safmarine vessels are materials for the power, mining, oil and gas sectors, and for industrial infrastructure, but include all types of breakbulk and container cargo. Safmarine also carries linerboard, resin and other bulk shipments.
MACS, a sister company of U.S.-South Africa multipurpose specialist GAL, transports cargo between Europe and South Africa.

The partners also operate a feeder service from Durban to Mombasa and Kenya in East Africa and into Madagascar. Cargo into East Africa tends to be used machinery and trucks, mining equipment, project cargo and food aid, said David Groves, Houston-based owner’s representative for GAL.

Ships are relatively full on the U.S.-South Africa leg because of the weak dollar, Groves said. The typical mining machinery and new machinery business has weakened because of the global slowdown, but bulk products and used machinery are moving.

Northbound trade, primarily raw materials and semifinished steels, has been more difficult, he said, because steel producers in the U.S. have not been ordering inventory. Business has picked up in recent months, however. Like GAL’s, MACS’s vessels are full southbound while the northbound leg has been more difficult to fill, Groves said.

GAL sails every three weeks between the U.S. and South Africa and has slot-charter agreements via Europe with MACS for containers. MACS sails out of Europe for South Africa every 10 days. Groves said he expects northbound trade to remain modest in 2010. However, “the U.S. Gulf market for Handy-size vessels has been pretty firm most of this year,” he said. “We are getting big increases over the rates that were negotiated late last year.”

Contact Janet Nodar at jcnodar@bellsouth.net.