SA's logistics performance going downhill

Logistics performance in
SA is slipping downhill,
according to the World Bank.
But it still maintains the top
spot in Africa according to
the organisation’s Logistics
Performance Index (LPI)
report for 160 countries in
2014.
It scores six key dimensions
between 0-5 (with 5 the top
score). And a country’s overall
LPI score is the weighted
average of its scores on these
six.With SA’s 2014 score in
brackets, the six dimensions
are:
* Efficiency of the clearance
process (ie, speed, simplicity
and predictability of
formalities) by border control
agencies, including customs
(3.11);
* Quality of trade and
transport related infrastructure
eg, ports, railroads, roads,
information technology (3.20);
* Ease of arranging
competitively priced shipments
(3.45);
* Competence and quality of
logistics services eg, transport
operators, customs brokers
(3.62);
* Ability to track and trace
consignments (3.30); and
* Timeliness of shipments in
reaching destination within the
scheduled or expected delivery
time (3.88).
As you can see, SA’s top
scores are for “timeliness”
and “logistics competence”;
our lowest for “customs” and
“infrastructure”.
Ranking this country at 34th
place in 2014, the WB noted
that, after a 6.53% decline in
overall performance to an LPI
score of 3.43, SA had fallen 11
places from 23rd spot in the
bank’s 2012 LPI study.
Admittedly, we were the top
performing African country
this year. But, given the quality
of the opposition, that’s a
limited claim to fame.
In sub-Saharan
Africa, Malawi in
73rd place, Kenya
(74), Nigeria (75),
Rwanda (80) and
Namibia (93) were
the top performers
after SA. The
worst performing
sub-Saharan country was the
Democratic Republic of Congo
(159) – or second last in the
LPI league to worst-performer
Somalia.
SA also soundly beat the
Middle East and North Africa
region, where the highest
dimensional score was 2.93
for timeliness compared to our
3.88. And its average LPI score
was 2.50 compared to our 3.43.
There’s little point in
matching SA scores to the topnotchers
in the LPI. Top scorer
Germany, for example, has all
of its dimensional scores bar
one (“international shipments”)
well over 4 – with its average
LPI 4.12.
But it may be better to rate
SA’s rankings against the other
semi-developed nations in the
Brics (Brazil, Russia, India,
China and SA) consortium.
In this, SA is only marginally
below China. And indeed,
we beat them in “logistics
competence” and “timeliness”.
The comparative
LPI scores were
3.53 for China and
3.43 for SA. And
dimensionally the
Chinese scores
were (SA’s in
brackets): “customs”
3.21 (3.11); “infrastructure”
3.67 (3.20); “international
shipments” 3.50 (3.45);
“logistics competence” 3.46
(3.62); tracking & tracing 3.50
(3.30); “timeliness” 3.87 (3.88).
India, Brazil and Russia were
all below SA – with Brazil and
Russia scoring mostly in the 2s.
In the WB report, titled
‘Connecting to Compete 2014:
Trade Logistics in the Global
Economy’, SA is noted to be an
“over-performing non-highincome”
economy. In this, at
34th LPI spot, we are ranked
with Malaysia (25), China (28),
Thailand (35), Vietnam (48)
and India (54).