Cape Times 2023-11-29

Hume INTERNATIONAL has warned that consumers in South Africa could possibly struggle to get certain products on the shelves this festive season and prices may increase due to ongoing delays caused by a serious backlog at the Port of Durban. Hume, one of the largest importers of frozen food-based commodities in South Africa, yesterday said the chaos at the largest port in the country was plunging the country’s logistics system in disarray. This comes as Transnet has said it would take up to 15 weeks to clear the backlog of at least 60 000 containers stuck on vessels with goods outside the port due to inefficiencies in port equipment and difficult weather conditions. Hume’s operations and logistics director, Roy Thomas, said the backlog might lead to increased prices…

Key affected parties, including labour have not been involved, says trade union Solidarity AARCELORMITTAL South Africa is axing 3 500 jobs at its Newcastle and Vereening steel manufacturing operations, a development labour union Solidarity described as “shocking” as the steel producer also laid blame on the collapse of key State run infrastructure and services. The announcement of the closure of ArcelorMittal’s long steel business yesterday followed on other job losses at Sibanye-Stillwater and at Impala Platinum (Implats) in the past few weeks. Some of the affected operations at Newcastle and Vereening have been under care and maintenance since last year. “A significant restructuring is being considered, with potentially 3 500 employees being affected and every effort will be made to manage down the number of jobs affected,” said…

GLOBAL investment management firm Schroders Capital has warned that wealth investors globally have been forced to re-evaluate their investment strategies in response to the new economic reality and ongoing inflation and geopolitical uncertainty. This is according to the Schroders Global Investor Study (GIS) 2023, which surveyed more than 23 000 wealth investors who invest from 33 locations globally – including 400 South Africans between May 26 and July 31, 2023. The flagship study has identified that almost 80% of investors now believe that we have entered a new era of policy and market behaviour as a result of higher inflation and interest rates. Schroders’ group chief investment officer and co-head of investment, Johanna Kyrklund, said this was in stark contrast to last year’s study, when some respondents believed…

THE SOUTH African Poultry Association (Sapa) yesterday reassured South Africans that there will be no poultry shortage due to Avian Influenza and the industry was importing enough hatching eggs to alleviate the shortages. It was responding to the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters of Southern Africa (Amie), which yesterday warned consumers to prepare for a ramp up in poultry prices over the festive season and into the new year. Paul Matthew, the CEO of Amie, said this was due to the cumulative effect of the poultry shortages caused by the Highly Pathogenic Avian In- fluenza (bird flu) outbreak, coupled with a failure of the government to timeously introduce a rebate on import tariffs and other emergency measures. “To address the poultry shortages caused by the bird flu outbreak, the…

THE WORLD Bank has granted its consent to the proposed legal separation of the Trans- mission Division from South Africa’s State-owned power utility, Eskom Holdings, to the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA). The NTCSA is charged with procuring electricity from Eskom power stations, the Southern African Power Pool and independent power producers in the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme and Risk Mitigation Programme. It will sell energy and capacity to the Distribution subsidiary of Eskom. Eskom yesterday welcomed the World Bank’s consent for legal separation of the Transmission Division as the bank is a key strategic creditor of Eskom and the largest multilateral development bank. Eskom’s acting group CEO, Calib Cassim, said the World Bank’s consent marked a significant milestone in advancing the utility’s turnaround plan and…

A VIRGIN Atlantic passenger jet powered by 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) took off from London on a flight to New York yesterday, as the aviation world seeks to showcase the potential of low-carbon options to secure its future. As the world decarbonises, airlines are banking on fuel made from waste to reduce their emissions by up to 70%, enabling them to keep operating before electric and hydrogen-powered air travel becomes a reality in the decades to come. Aviation accounts for an estimated 2–3% of global carbon emissions. SAF is key towards reducing those emissions, but it is costly, at about three to five times as much as regular jet fuel right now, and accounts for less than 0.1% of total global jet fuel in use today. The flight, operated…