A Logistics Barometer for South Africa: Towards sustainable freight mobility

Abstract

Background: South Africa has a disproportionately high freight transport demand owing to industrial development far from ports, low domestic beneficiation and improper modal use. Historical freight transport policy supported primary economic development, failing to preempt the changing economic structure and the resulting freight transport needs, resulting in excessive transport costs and externalities.Objectives: To share the macroeconomic freight transport challenges revealed by South Africa’s Logistics Barometer, and to identify key interventions to address these.Method: Freight flows are modelled by disaggregating the national input–output model into 83 commodity groupings and 372 geographical areas, culminating in a 30-year forecast at 5-year intervals for three scenarios, followed by distance-decay gravity modelling to determine freight flows. Logistics costs are calculated by relating these flows to the costs of fulfilling associated logistic functions.Results: Long-distance transport remains the largest general freight typology and is, due to inefficient macro logistics design, extremely costly, both in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic costs.Conclusion: South Africa’s freight task will grow 2.5-fold by 2043. Logistics and externality costs are already untenable at current levels. The development of domestic intermodal solutions will support the drive towards sustainable freight mobility.

Geographical patterns of warehousing facilities in the Cape functional region, South Africa

“…These arterial roads also grant access to most industrial areas in the City of Cape Town municipal area, providing transport linkage opportunities between the cluster areas, which are largely situated within the industrial areas. While noting the declining freight rail market (see Havenga et al, 2016Havenga et al, , 2021, the clustering of the warehousing facilities also appears to be predominantly positioned in the vicinity of the railway F I G U R E 1 0 City of Cape Town cluster areas infrastructure. It should be acknowledged that the railway infrastructure in the City of Cape Town is, in most instances, positioned parallel to arterial routes, forming an anchor of development corridors.…”

“…It should however be acknowledged that the use of rail for freight in South Africa has declined over time. For instance, the rail's market share of the total tonnes shipped in South Africa declined from 23% in 2011 to 16% in 2019 (Havenga et al, 2021). Relatedly, as a microcosm of a nationwide problem, logistics costs in the Western Cape province are high, at approximately 16% of the gross domestic product (GDP) (Havenga et al, 2015).…”

Environmental Protection of Port Logistics Using Phase Analysis

“…Within port logistics, it is a very diverse area. Globalization has not led to the integration of the labor market, energy or trade, and to the preservation and strengthening of local identities [36,37]. Port logistics is all the activity associated with port operations, whether they are passenger or freight parts of ports.…”

Skills requirements in South African supply chains: A higher education perspective

“…This is reflected in the economic reports for the first quarter of 2017, where "both the secondary and tertiary sectors recorded negative growth rates. The trade and manufacturing industries were the major heavyweights that stifled production, with trade falling disadvantages from a supply chain perspective, such as its distances between ports and economic hubs as well as distances between economic hubs and major trading partners, making it a transport intensive economy (Havenga et al 2016). This suggests that it is even more critical that supply chains function as effectively as possible.…”

“…When measuring logistics performance, available competencies are typically regarded as critical to the effective functioning of the supply chain (World Bank 2016). Although this index indicates marginal improvements in perceptions of logistics competence over the past ten years, both the Logistics Barometer (Havenga et al 2016) and the Barloworld Supply Chain Foresight Report (2016) continue to identify the skills shortage as a critical constraint to South Africa's business environment in general and its supply chains in particular.…”