For the middle class, for the first time in a while, things are really beginning to look up. Trouble is, very little of the good news at the top level of the economy is getting through to the vast majority of our people. I was quite cheered when I looked through the details of a big economic story yesterday.
It wasn’t just another in the endless processions of press releases that tell me the JSE has had a rip-roaring year (do they think you and I hadn’t noticed?), it was, strangely, aSENSstatement from an SOE. The SOE in question was Transnet. And the announcement was that they have finally signed an agreement with International Container Terminal Services (ICTS) about Pier Two at Durban Harbour.
Pier Two to our harbour system is a bit like Discovery to our medical schemes industry. It is pretty much the dominant piece of hardware. As a result the lack of investment at the Durban port over the years has led to huge problems.
Read Full Article on Daily Maverick
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You’ll remember all the stories about ships anchored offshore, waiting for their turn to come in and dock and offload their containers. Now, under what I understand is quite a novel contract, Transnet is setting up a new company with ICTS. They are very nearly joint shareholders.
Transnet will have precisely one more share than ICTS, giving them a majority shareholding. This means that the more containers that are loaded and offloaded by ICTS during this time, the more money they will make. And to do that they obviously need to invest heavily in more equipment there.
Transnet expects them to invest R11-billion, and to do it pretty quickly. The statement also explains that it will be able to increase the terminal’s capacity quite dramatically. More excitingly for those of us interested in these things, it is also expected to “improve gross crane moves per hour from 18 to 28”.
Now, the last time I was involved in anything quite as exciting as improving “gross crane moves per hour” it concerned my then young son and a Duplo train set. Even now, if I happen to drive past a crane at work I feel the need to stop for a moment and take a look.
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