South Africa is positioned along major international trade routes, and the maritime industry thus plays a vital role in the country’s economy. With a coastline stretching over 2,800 kilometers, South Africa has access to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, providing abundant opportunities for maritime activities.
The South African maritime industry and its ports are managed by the state-owned Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA), as regulated by a law dating back to 2005. Since then, Transnet has been effectively exercising monopoly power over the sector, restricting access to the market for private companies. As of 2022, the company was managing nine seaports in South Africa, including some of the most prominent South African seaports, such as the
Port of Durban, Cape Town, and Richards Bay.
Cargo throughput showing signs of improvement
In 2022,
South African ports processed more than 4.4 million TEUs of containers and about 173 million metric tons of
dry bulk cargo. The country’s ports saw an increase in throughput in 2022 across all cargo and commodity segments, indicating an improvement in economic activity after the challenging year of 2021 marked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The
number of vehicles—an essential type of goods for South African trade—passing through the country’s ports reached over 700,000 units in 2022. The vehicle throughput was 46 percent larger than in 2021 but still below the 2019 and 2020 levels.
Growing criticism of TNPA’s monopoly over the industry
The increase in throughput was reflected in the financial performance of the national maritime industry, at least in revenue. In 2022, the
TNPA reported a revenue of more than 12.5 billion South African rands, the highest revenue recorded in the last decade. However, the
EBITDA margin—a measure of a company’s operating profit as a share of its revenue—stood at 59.9 percent, up from 58 percent in 2021 but below 65 and 66.8 percent in 2020 and 2019, respectively. The TNPA has been struggling with performance inefficiencies for years, resulting in a restructuring of the company’s operations in 2021.
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