The Civil Engineering Contractor April 2019 | Page 28

Eamonn
FEATURE: INFRASTRUCTURE
Malcolm Hartwell, a director and attorney
specialising in harbours and infrastructure
in Africa with Norton Rose Fulbright. Fana Marutla, an executive board
member of SAICE, as well as head of
business development, transportation
at GIBB Engineering.
are higher than what we pay in most
European ports.
“In terms of operating efficiency,
in Brazil, for instance, we load
10 000t in 12–16 hours. Here, we are
loading about 2 500t/day. Vessel hire
is expensive, and when one is delayed
in port, the ship owner will charge
for that delay. For example, we ship
material from Brazil to Xiamen in China at USD20/tonne cheaper than
from Richards Bay to China, which is
half the distance,” explains Ashmole.
“It’s to do with port efficiencies.”
Marutla concurs that exporting
from South Africa has become an
expensive challenge, attributing it
to “long dwell times at ports, the
poor cross-border logistics, and
trade barriers”.
26 | CEC April 2019
Finstone SA chief operating
officer, Ian Ashmole.
Conclusion
Marutla says: “The challenge facing this
country is on performing high-quality
maintenance on the railway network,
rolling stock, and other equipment
timeously to ensure that the reliability
and availability of these systems
is achieved in a sustainable manner.
Substandard maintenance is reducing
the asset life of these systems.” nn
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