Ivory Coast price reform for cocoa growers
Reforms in Ivory Coast’s cocoa sector would include a guarantee to farmers of a minimum selling price to ensure plantation owners turned a profit, Agriculture Minister Coulibaly Sangafow said yesterday. The change would bring the top cocoa grower into line with policies in Ghana and potentially end years of back-and-forth smuggling, he said. – Reuters
Pretoria Portland Cement Input costs weaken annual profit
Rising input costs and an inability to fully recover these through price hikes, despite increased cement demand, have dented the performance of Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) in the year to September. The listed cement and lime producer reported yesterday that earnings a share and headline earnings a share in the period were expected to be between 25 percent and 30 percent lower than the year before.
The company said cement demand in South Africa improved marginally during the second half of its financial year but demand in the Western Cape, where the company had high exposure, continued to lag the rest of the country. It added that a successful price increase during July would enhance revenues last month and this month but the overall pricing environment was expected to remain competitive. Together with ongoing input inflation, this continued to present a challenging business environment, it said.
PPC’s stock advanced 0.5 percent to close at R23.76 yesterday. – Roy Cokayne
Source – September 21 2011 at 05:00am
South African SABS Cement offers for September 2011
Indication prices for the month of September 2011, for SABS certified cement imported from a certified factory in Pakistan.
CNF DELIVERY
- +-R 43 per 50kg bag of SABS certified cement for Durban
- +-R 44 per 50kg bag of SABS certified cement for Port Elizabeth
- +-R 45 per 50kg bag of SABS certified cement for Cape Town
PORT CONTAINER TERMINAL
- +-R 53 per 50kg bag of SABS certified cement – collection at Durban Container Terminal, ex VAT
- +-R 54 per 50kg bag of SABS certified cement – collection at Port Elizabeth Container Terminal, ex VAT
- +-R 55 per 50kg bag of SABS certified cement – collection at Cape Town Container Terminal, ex VAT
The respective SABS certification and NRCS Letters of Authority are already in place and can be verified by the buyer. Terms and Conditions do apply
SOGESTER INVESTS US$ 155 MILLION IN LUANDA CONTAINER TERMINAL
Luanda, 20 September – Sogester, the container terminal management company has invested US$155 million in modernising and upgrading the Port of Lunada’s container terminal.
Sogester (Sociedade Gestora de Terminais), which is a consortium formed in 2007 to manage the terminal under a 20-year concession has as its shareholders the Angolan state pension fund company, Gestao de Fundos (49% stake), APM Terminals (40%), and Maersk (11%).
Sogester’s deputy director Patrick Anderson said the $155 million had been spent on new equipment, including 20 trucks and four cranes, a computer operating system, and the training of staff.
Previously attention had focused on repairing the terminal’s quays and dockside and laying asphalt throughout the facility. “We started operating in 2007 and are trying to set up conditions to make the port of Luanda more efficient,” Anderson said, adding that the small size of the port was one of the challenges facing Sogester.
Nevertheless, he claimed that the competitiveness and efficiency of the port had improved dramatically since 1007, when ships had to wait for up to 500 hours to berth. Now, he said, they were delayed by no more than 10 hours.
Luanda handles up to 85% of Angola’s imports every year.
Source – ports.co.za
Durban terminal woes as Navis system ‘crashes’
There appears to be no end in sight for the problems at the Durban Container Terminal (DCT), Pier 2. After a weekend (10/11 September) of severe road congestion outside the terminal there was yet another ‘crash’ of the Navis SPARCS N4 operating system during the week (Wednesday, 14 September), leading once again to a long queue of trucks outside the terminal gates.
The problems are exacerbated by continuing roadworks further along Bayhead Road leading to Pier 1, where the road is being widened as well as realigned near the entrance to the Cutler complex (Island View).
Trucking companies and operators now say that the congestion outside DCT is one of the causes of the high level of road accidents and deaths on the city’s and national roads because of fatigue suffered by drivers.
Ship repair companies who are forced to share the Bayhead Road with the truckers complain of being unable to reach the shipyards at times because of the large number of lorries clogging Bayhead Road. Ports & Ships was told at the weekend just past of ship repair personnelk arriving at Bayhead Road at 05h00 one morning only to find the road system totally blocked with traffic, even at that early hour.
Source – ports.co.za/news
HISTORIC DAY AS BEIRA SHIPS ITS FIRST COAL
The first shipment of coal from the Moatize coal mines in Tete Province was due to be shipped from Beira port yesterday.
The batch of 35,000 tonnes of thermal coal was transported along the 575-km long Sena Railway, the first time in 28 years that such a cargo has been carried on the Sena- Beira railway. The coal was loaded into the bulker ORION EXPRESS, whose departure from the port marks the end of the first phase of the implementation of Vale’s Moatize Coal Mine, in which Vale has invested US$1.658 billion.
According to the Maputo newspaper Noticias, between 5,000 and 6,000 tons of coal was loaded each day using trucks and barges.
This method of loading has been necessary owing to the delay in refurbishment of the old bulk minerals facility at berth 8, which is being funded by Vale and Riversdale and will be operated by Cornelder. On completion of the refurbishment which is scheduled for November, a conveyor belt will come into operation and is likely to speed up the loading of coal into the ships.
According to Felix Machado, marketing manager for Cornelder at the port, the re-launch of coal exports at Beira is an historic occasion which would have positive results for the growth of the port and the rail network, the latter having also undergone refurbishment.
Machado told Noticias that Cornelder Moçambique, together with state port and rail company Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM), had begun to consider the possibility of building new docks and investing in specialised terminals for coal, fertilizers and mining products as well as a tobacco warehouse. This was to cater for the growth in the use of Beira by several neighbouring landlocked countries.
Vale holds the concession for one of the biggest coal reserves in the world at Moatize, Tete Province, in the northwest of the country. According to the Brazilian company, in due course the Moatize mine will have a nominal production capacity of 11 million tonnes of metallurgical and thermal coal per year
Since it was implemented in 2008, the Moatize Coal Mine has boosted the Mozambican economy, generating jobs and income, with more than 9,000 people having been involved in the project. In addition, the mine is stimulating and developing local suppliers of goods and services.
Over $90 million has already been invested in projects in the fields of health, farming, infrastructure, sport and education, as well as in the resettlement of 1,353 families in Tete. In order to achieve optimum results for the community, Vale’s investment in the resettlement was significantly higher than planned, involving the building of schools, health centres and a police station, thereby creating a well-functioning neighborhood for the community.
These projects include the refurbishment of Tete Provincial Hospital, Moatize Health Centre and the Moatize Intermediate Institute of Geology and Mines and the development of local agriculture.
Moatize Coal Mine, currently Vale’s largest coal investment, is part of the company’s strategy of becoming a major global player in the sector. In addition to its project in Mozambique, Vale has coal operations and a portfolio of exploration projects in Australia and Colombia, as well as minority stakes in two joint ventures in China.
South Africa Highest Ranked Economy in Sub-Saharan Africa
Pretoria – South Africa remains the highest ranked country in sub-Saharan Africa on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) global competitiveness index.
“South Africa moves up by four places to attain 50th position this year, remaining the highest-ranked country in sub-Saharan Africa and the second-placed among the BRICS economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). The country benefits from the large size of its economy, particularly by regional standards – it is ranked 25th in the market size,” read the Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012.
The report was released on Wednesday by the WEF and assesses the ability of countries to provide high levels of prosperity to their citizens, depending on how productively they use available resources.
This year’s report features a record number of 142 economies, including developed and developing nations.
“Sub-Saharan Africa has grown impressively over the last 15 years. It has bounced back rapidly from the global economic crisis, and its growth rates continue to exceed the global average. Indeed, some African countries improve with respect to national competitiveness this year. South Africa and Mauritius remain in the top half of the rankings, having advanced since last year,” the report stated.
South Africa was found to be doing well on measures of the quality of institutions, property rights and the accountability of its private institutions, among others.
“Particularly impressive is the country’s financial market development (4th), indicating high confidence in South Africa’s financial markets at a time when trust is returning only slowly in many other parts of the world,” it noted.
The country was also found to be doing “reasonably” well in more complex areas like business sophistication (38th) and innovation (41st) and strong collaboration between universities and the business sector in innovation (26th).
“These combined attributes make South Africa the most competitive economy in the region. However, in order to further enhance its competitiveness, the country will need to address some weaknesses,” said the report.
South Africa ranks 95th in labour market efficiency, with rigid hiring and firing practices (139th), a lack of flexibility in wage determination by companies (138th), and significant tensions in labour-employer relations (138th).
The report also called for efforts to be made to increase the university enrolment rate of 15%, which places South Africa 97th overall, in order to better develop its innovation potential.
The country’s infrastructure, which is good by regional standards, requires upgrading. The report also found that poor security remained an obstacle in doing business in South Africa.
“The business costs of crime and violence (136th) and the sense that the police are unable to provide protection from crime (95th) do not contribute to an environment that fosters competitiveness.”
The report expressed concern at the health of South Africa’s workforce, which is ranked 129th out of 142 economies. The ranking is as a result of high rates of communicable diseases and poor health indicators.
According to the report, South Africa and Mauritius remain in the top half of the rankings, having advanced in the last year.
The report also added that in sub-Saharan Africa, there have been measurable improvements across specific areas in a number of other African countries. The report found that generally sub-Sahara Africa as a whole lags behind the rest of the world in competitiveness.
Mauritius ranked 54th, while Rwanda ranked 70th and Botswana 80th – putting them in the group of top ranked countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
The report shows that Africa’s competitiveness has been improving in recent years in specific areas, with many countries ensuring more sustainable fiscal policies, better- managed inflation and more efficient markets.
Many African countries are low in the ranking with 13 of the 20 lowest ranked economies being from Africa.
“Looking forward, African economies must continue to develop economic environments that are based on productivity enhancements.”
Switzerland tops the overall rankings followed by Singapore. The United States slipped to fifth position, having been overtaken by Singapore and Sweden. Finland occupies 4th place. – BuaNews & P&S
You can read the full WEF report as a .pdf document click here.
West Africa Shipping
The container ship Niledutch Shenhzen making her way out of Durban Bay during August this year. Niledutch is a shipping company that has specialised in the West Africa trades for over 25 years and today operates services to and from West Africa and the east coast South America, between West Africa and Europe, West Africa and South Africa, West Africa and Middle and Far East.
Picture by Trevor Jones
Cocoa – Ghana poised to become top dog
By Gary Mead
Watch out Ivory Coast – here comes Ghana! Ivory Coast currently is the top dog in cocoa production terms. With around at 1.4 million tonnes during the 2010-2011 season, out of total world output likely to be around 4 million tonnes. It’s been like this for decades. But there’s good evidence that Ghana is catching up fast – and the positions could be switched as early as next season.
Ghana’s ‘output’ in 2010-2011 has officially clocked in at a record 1 million tonnes. But the data this year has been badly skewed by the bloody civil war in Ivory Coast at the start of the year. A large percentage – precisely how much no one knows – of Ghana’s production is smuggled cocoa from Ivory Coast. The reason is simple – Ghana’s cocoa farmers get a state-fixed price while their peers in Ivory Coast don’t.
But that was probably a one-off event. Prices have been in steady recovery in Ivory Coast since the war ended and the smuggling next season is bound to be less. So what can Ghana do to avoid the embarrassment of next season showing a production ‘decline’? It can do various things – none of which however will work in the near term. On 6 September, the Ghanaian government launched a programme pledging to provide 20 million cocoa seedlings each year, free of charge, to existing cocoa farmers and those interested in joining the sector. Finance and economic planning minister Kwabena Duffuor was pretty clear about his objectives: “Ghana wants to become No. 1 again and it is achievable.” But these seedlings will not produce cocoa pods for at least five years, even with the most favourable weather conditions and fertiliser applications.
Cocoa production by country (thousand tonnes) | Source: ABN AMRO | WorldCrops.com
Ghana’s interest in reasserting itself as the world’s top cocoa producer – a title it held until the mid-1970s – is in any case a little surprising. Everybody assumed that, after the discovery in 2007 of the Jubilee offshore oil and gas fields, that the government would plough every Cedi it’s got into becoming a serious energy producer and exporter, rather than chase after cocoa. The probable changes in Ghana’s economy that will result from the oil – such as urbanisation and inflation – will discourage young people from becoming cocoa farmers. But Ghana has a reputation for political and economic moderation. Maybe it is about to pursue a sensible diversification strategy.
In any case it might soon become the world leader in cocoa production without doing very much to boost its own output. For Ivory Coast output continues to languish, despite the end of the fighting. The sorts of policy supports to deal with declining production and ageing trees that its cocoa sector needs are barely on the horizon. Ivory Coast agriculture minister Coulibaly Sangafow announced this week that the government’s reform plans for cocoa were still two to three months away from completion. Two to three years, more like.
Source: ABN AMRO | WorldCrops.com
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