From iol.co.za via Fresh Plaza (South Africa’s container trade)

China’s economic slowdown, the slump in commodity prices, dwindling consumer spending power and the drought negatively affected South Africa’s container trade in the first quarter of this year, according to Matthew Conroy, the trade manager at Maersk Line Southern Africa.

Conroy said import and export markets had declined year on year by 8 percent and 12 percent, respectively. He said the 2016 first quarter Maersk trade report showed economic restraints and less demand for South Africa’s commodities negatively affected trade levels.

The weakening import market was mainly due to a 13 percent decline in imports from Asia. “This trade lane represents about 45 percent of total imports into South Africa and is dominated by manufactured goods, which are on the decline due to lower consumer consumption in South Africa. Looking forward, we do not expect import trade to improve drastically very soon as there are no clear signs of an economic recovery, which is ultimately what is required to fuel incremental consumer spend,” Conroy said.

However, he said the smaller Middle East trade lane grew by 10 percent. “This is largely related to a local sourcing change, where more retail products are being sourced from the Middle East and less from Asia.”

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