Naamsa The Automotive Business Council and Transnet have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a strategic intent to develop and convene a Naamsa-Transnet Auto “War Room.”
Naamsa represents the country’s seven main Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) including BMW, Ford, Isuzu, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota, and VW, as well as over 30 other players in the automotive industry across the finance and retail spheres.
Transnet is the state-owned freight authority responsible for the operation and maintenance of the country’s ports and railways.
Light at the end of the tunnel
The Naamsa-Transnet Auto “War Room” is intended to drive the collection, consolidation, and sharing of key data between the two entities to support the implementation of strategic initiatives that will improve the performance of the nation’s ports.
This comes after South Africa’s ports of entry were ranked among the least efficient in the world earlier in 2024.
Automakers have been vocal about these issues for years, stating that the ineffectiveness of the harbours poses a huge challenge to their planned production schedules and hampers their ability to meet business objectives, however, little has been done to heed their concerns up until now.
The revival of the country’s ports will thus be monitored by Key Performance Indicators for rail performance, slot availability/capacity, and rolling stock availability and utilisation to ensure a boost to efficiency.
The MoU will additionally support the development of priority infrastructure projects including the South Corridor and the Gqeberha/Coega Port Masterplan to ease congestion at the ports, known as Project Ukuvuselela, as well as the utilisation of the Maputo Port for used imported vehicles.
Both organisations will also collaborate to develop standard operating procedures to mitigate automotive-specific challenges and bottlenecks.
“Driving infrastructure investment is critical to support the promotion and expansion of the automotive sector, and this is underpinned by the provision of cost-effective and reliable port and logistics services,” said Naamsa.
A successful collaboration between the automotive sector and Transnet can drive the South African Automotive Masterplan 2035 objective of attaining R400 billion worth of exports, it concluded.
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