New deal adds global muscle to Celtic Freight

ALAN PEAT
IN A truly international alliance, the Zambian-founded freight company, Celtic Freight, has become an affiliate of the Swiss-based corporation, Dunavant – a fully owned subsidiary of Dunavant Enterprises in the US. This resulted from the local subsidiary, Dunavant Africa, acquiring an interest in Celtic and the companies joining forces from November 1. Said Celtic MD Adrian Friend: “With Dunavant Zambia’s cotton exports making it the country’s largest non-mineral exporter and Celtic Freight as one of its largest haulier/logistics providers, this will create a vital part of Zambia’s future export aspirations.” Dunavant currently exports approximately 120 000-tons of cotton products from Zambia, with approximately 70 000-t of this being cotton lint bales, which are transported breakbulk and packed for overseas export in SA. According to Friend’s figures, the other
50 000-t is cotton seed – also transported breakbulk, but for consumption by the SA agricultural sector. The Geneva parent handles in excess of 1.2-million bales a year from origins as diverse as Tanzania, Turkey, Israel, Pakistan, Europe and the Middle East, and is also one of the leading companies merchandising cotton from the West and East African producing countries. The Zambian, Mozambican and Ugandan subsidiaries also operate cotton ginning facilities. Celtic, meantime, currently operates a full freight, logistics and transport service with its fleet of 67, Zambian-registered “Superlink” truck/trailer units offering, for example, four-trucks-a-day on the five-day transit between Johannesburg and Lusaka. “We also move bulk, breakbulk and containerised cargoes direct from Durban to Zambia; full container load (FCL) and less-than container load (LCL) cargo from Zambia worldwide; repair and return cargo to SA; and move exports of bulk agricultural products to SA and worldwide,” he told FTW.