PRETORIA - South Africa’s vehicle manufacturing industry is set to benefit from the zero-percent increase in roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) and container cargo dues announced this month by the National Ports Authority.
RoRo ships are vessels designed to carry wheeled cargo, including cars and trucks, that drive on and off the ship.
The tariffs are effective from April 1 next year to March 31, 2019. While RoRo and container cargo dues will not increase, marine services and related tariffs will rise by 8.5percent, coal export cargo dues by 8.5percent and all other cargo dues by 5.4percent. Nico Vermeulen, the director of the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers (Naamsa), welcomed the zero increase, adding that it would narrow the huge variance and discrepancy between international port benchmarks.
South Africa’s automotive industry has complained in the past about South African port charges, claiming they were up to 10 times more expensive than China’s, and that South Africa was the only country in the world to have cargo dues while the productivity of the ports was far behind global standards.