Freight rates firm as NileDutch predicts positive outlook

Falling freight rates and overtonnaging on the South Africa/Far East trade have not prevented NileDutch from expanding its services across the ocean and increasing capacity on some of its services. “NileDutch is a new player in the Far East/SA market,” Sharmeni Varathaiah, senior sales executive told FTW, “but due to our excellent record in West Africa, which is extended to the Far East, we have received amazing support from importers, exporters and the clearing and forwarding industry.” She explained that over the past year freight levels had dropped drastically for both imports and exports, mainly due to various carriers operating on this trade lane. “Freight rates have however increased since July and NileDutch is at full capacity and expects this to continue until the end of the year,” said Varathaiah. The company doesn’t expect a second potential world recession would affect its current performance on the SA/ Far East trade: “We expect the positive trend to follow on from 2011,” she said. “Whilst we expect new players to come in and out of the trade, making it volatile and erratic in terms of rates, we still have a positive outlook for the future.” The company has seen tremendous growth from China into West Africa and SA, she added. “The main aim is to grow and increase market share on the trade by placing greater emphasis on client service and ensuring cargo is shipped timeously from direct ports in China to SA and West Africa with best transit times,” she said. It has also upgraded its Far East/West Africa service from fortnightly to three to four sailings per month. “We are also proud to announce that from 2013 we will be commissioning five brand new 3 500-TEU owned vessels into our service,” said Varathaiah. NileDutch is one of few carriers offering direct sailings from five main ports in China (Xingang, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou) to Durban, Cape Town and destinations in West Africa.