Desie Heita
26 May 2011
Windhoek — Namibia has gone knocking on South American doors, as the country ups its promotional drive to market the Port of Walvis Bay as the preferred port facility in southern Africa.
Namibia also sees opportunities in South Africa’s inclusion into the emerging market bloc that includes Brazil, Russia, India and China.
The country says this inclusion provides economic opportunities for Walvis Bay to serve as an alternative gateway for South Africa’s Gauteng Province due to the shorter trade route that it offers to importers and exporters between Southern Africa and Brazil.
“It takes a ship about seven days sailing time between Santos, which is the main port in Brazil up to Walvis Bay, – a considerable benefit to importers and exporters between Brazil and Southern Africa,” said Walvis Bay Corridor Group’s Agnetha Mouton.
Walvis Bay Corridor Group (WBCG) promotes the intense usage of the Port of Walvis Bay, and of the road links between the port and Namibia’s landlocked neighbouring countries.
Currently, there are a number of Brazilian commodities and produces making their way into southern Africa in huge volumes every month.
These include frozen chicken, meat, equipment, furniture and other consumables.
The items mainly go to Angola, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
A limited quantity of produce also makes its way into the Namibian market.
Brazil hosted the 17th Intermodal South America trade fair in Sao Paulo, with an emphasis on international trade, logistics, transport and cargo handling.
The Walvis Bay Corridor Group saw the Sao Paulo trade fair as the ideal platform to promote transport linkages between the two continents.
Walvis Bay port started with the promotional drive since it rolled out a N$1,2 billion expansion programme in 2008.
The expansion, done in various phases, deepened the port to handle the world’s largest cargo vessels, extended the dry-dock to accommodate larger oil rigs in for repairs, and added space for bulk and break handling facilities, container terminals and to accommodate increased throughput from new mines coming on stream, many of which are uranium mines.
Mouton says throughout the trade fair, the focus was on attracting Brazilian exporting companies to make Walvis Bay as their preferred distribution hub for southern Africa, and selling the Port of Walvis Bay as the preferred trade route between South America and southern Africa.
“More than 25 countries participated at this event and we established links with many transport and logistics companies, not only based in South America, but also other parts of the world,” asserted Mouton.
The Walvis Bay Corridor Group used the time to visit and host individual meetings with shipping lines and transport operators, where discussions focused on key areas such as business development and transport facilitation.
The visits extended as far as to Port Alegro, in the southern province of Brazil, to create awareness on Walvis Bay as an alternative trade route to Southern Africa.
Mouton explained, Namibia, through Walvis Bay, “offers the shortest trade route between Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and South America and therefore provides significant opportunity for current and future trade between SADC and Brazil as well as other countries in South America.”
AllAfrica – All the Time
Continued here:
Brazil Here We Come