South African shipping and ship finance : constraints and prospects of container shipping joint venture

[摘要] ENGLISH SUMMARY: The changes taking place in the maritime trade provide broad and complex areas ofinterrelationships that can be identified as the main reason leading to the need for ajoint venture South African container industry. The world economics and commercialdevelopments, intense competition, low freight rates, high operational cost,liquidations, loss of market share and trade necessitated the investigation of marketstrategies that will provide the South African container industry with a sustainablecomparative advantages on the traditional North/South route.This study addresses the benefits of a joint venture between Safmarine and a South African Black Operator. The benefit of the joint venture is dual. Firstly, the operationalbenefits are realising economies of scale, more access to capital finance, strongerbargaining power and acquisition of a bigger market share. Secondly, there arebenefits to the South African Balance of Payments because of retained foreignexchange spending on freight rates, the gaining of foreign exchange on freightearnings, the benefits associated with the flying of the South African flag, the skillstransfer and maintenance of management skills in South Africa, and the opportunityto create black economic empowerment. With the expected growth and recovery ofan export-led economy the latent benefits of a South African operator could havebeen realised if such a joint venture could have come about. However, SafmarineContainer Line was sold to a foreign shipowner, i.e. AP Moller. Although, most of theoperational benefits can be realised with such a buy-out, South Africa has lost theopportunity to become a significant player in the· shipping trade with ancillarybenefits.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University