In-house southern African network ensures control

ALAN PEAT
THE WAREHOUSING and distribution network in southern Africa is bulging at the seams at the moment, according to Richard Tiddy, commercial services executive at Manica Africa, one of the major players in this region.
“Our Zambian operation is pretty full,” he told FTW, “with minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) transiting Kitwe.”
And for this massive cargo movement, Manica has a team of surveyors on the spot to analyse the minerals.
“We have also just purchased the former railway sheds in Kitwe and converted them into a hub for DRC cargo movement.”
It’s a similar story in Zimbabwe, with warehousing facilities currently stacked out with aid cargoes to this economically straitened nation.
Malawi is another hot spot for cargo storage and distribution at the moment, with large movements of tea, coffee and sugar heading for their market places.
“We’ve also got a shareholding in the Malawi Cargo Centre in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, a port which is now taking preference over Durban for the movement of cargoes in-and-out of Zambia,” said Tiddy.
In Johannesburg the warehousing facilities are presently full of trade goods, he added, and Durban with aid cargo.
The main product that gives Manica advantage, according to Tiddy, is its network of warehousing and distribution facilities in the southern region of Africa.
“This has been a major investment in the region,” he said.
“And, because we can offer in-house facilities throughout the sub-Saharan region, we are effectively a third party logistics provider - not a fourth party logistics provider sub-contracting cargo storage and distribution functions to other operations.
“This gives as much more control over this entire field of operations.”