'Cheeky' move gets Barbican customers a weekly frequency

A CHEEKY move is how Saferoute executive Barry Fourie describes the recent deal with Barbican Line which saw Saferoute taking over the management of the line following Barbican's withdrawal of its ships in June this year.
And just one month since the agreement was sealed, Fourie is confident that Barbican customers are more than satisfied with the service outcome.
The customer demands a weekly frequency at a competitive price rate, says Fourie.
Barbican's monthly SA - Australasia - South America service was therefore not a viable option.
Barbican owners DAL had made a decision to withdraw from the trade, and they saw us as a means of providing a graceful exit, Fourie told FTW.
This involved firstly the continuation of the Barbican brand and its relationship with the customers, and secondly the wind-up of the container fleet.
We had the resources, the infrastructure and the relationships and have managed to accommodate the totality of the service, excluding the Pacific Islands business, by using our network of connecting carrier relationships.
By maintaining the key agents in Brazil, and South Africa (Freightmarine Shipping), we have plugged them into our network.
The benefit, says Fourie, is that the customers who previously had a monthly service now have a weekly option.
Instead of putting our own ships on an overtonnaged route, we've taken the cargo and added value to our alliance partners. We've taken an unprofitable business and turned it into a profitable venture.
The bottom line, in Fourie's view, is that Saferoute has created continuity of service and relationships.
Saferoute is not an NVOCC in the classic sense, says Fourie. We are global container slot traders. 80% of the vision is this capacity trading, which is precisely what we've done with Barbican.
We've taken the Barbican volume and have gone out there and bought the best deal
This year we will spend over $30-million buying space so that our buying strength in the global shipping market has become quite significant.
Does Fourie see any similar Barbican-type deals in the offing?
With the capacity oversurplus in the world, people are desperate to put cargo on ships and the fact that we have a network that generates cargo gives us strong buying power.
There are a lot of marginal operators who can expect a tough 18 months ahead, so the opportunity to repeat the Barbican deal must be there.