Star 2022-11-03

THE GOVERNMENT needs to urgently review the impact of import duties on the increasing cost of food, and remove newly imposed duties on imported french fries, according to international trade consultancy XA Global Trade Advisors. This follows the recent imposition by the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) of provisional duties on frozen fries imported or originating from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. The provisional duties imposed were as high as 190% in some cases. XA Global Trade Advisors chief executive Donald MacKay said yesterday the government could not continue to impose duty-upon-duty on food and expect it not to harm consumers. “Duties on fries specifically have increased the price of fries by 88%, from R16/kg in 2021 to R30/kg in 2022. Duties are not in the public interest, they…

THE AUDITOR-general’s office has expressed concern at Transnet’s in- ability to generate sufficient cash flow from its operations to make debt payments, its liquidity, resulting in its raising loans to make payments, a sentiment expressed by Moody’s Ratings Agency earlier this year. Briefing Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts yesterday, Modimela Singo, the acting business executive at the auditor-general (AG), said yesterday that Transnet’s financial report, in which it recently declared R5 billion profit from a fair value adjustment of its R9.8bn portfolio investments, had been done late. “The issue is that Transnet is not able to generate sufficient cash flow from its operations to settle loan repayments. “It is not sustainable that Transnet has to raise loans to make repayments, even though it does have a R36bn domestic…

So far the government remains aloof, and says that it doesn’t have funds TONGAAT Hulett’s Business Rescue Practitioners (BRP) and the South African Cane Growers Association (Sacga) have resolved to go cap in hand to ask the government to salvage the company, which currently facing costs close to R1 billion for payments to farmers for the months of September and October. Trevor Murgatroyd, Peter van den Steen and Gerhard Albertyn of Metis Strategic Advisors are the business rescue practitioners of Tongaat. After a meeting with them, Sacga announced that it had written to Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza, Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel and President Cyril Ramaphosa, among others, to request urgent engagements on the necessity of government financial intervention to ensure that…

THE COMPETITION Commission wants to prosecute Vita Gas for limiting access to liquified petroleum gas (LPG) from import terminals in the Western Cape. Vita Gas imports LPG, propane, and butane into Southern Africa by ship. Vita Gas sells to any licensed customer that wishes to buy small or large volumes. The Competition Commission said last Friday it had referred to the Competition Tribunal a complaint against Vita Gas for the alleged abuse of market dominance in the supply of LPG from import terminals in the Western Cape. The Sunrise Energy terminal, located at Saldanha Bay, is the only LPG terminal in the Western Cape. The commission found that Vita Gas, by entering into an exclusive agreement with Sunrise Energy, which had contravened the Competition Act. The commission said it had…

THE JSE HAS given Fortress Reit (real estate investment trust) until November 30 to submit a compliant Reit dividend declaration, or its Reit status would be removed, the company said in an update yesterday. To retain its Reit status, a Reit must distribute at least 75% of its distributable profits to shareholders within four months of its financial year-end, subject to the solvency and liquidity test. Fortress’s board planned earlier this year to collapse the company’s dual-share structure into a single share, and so allow the declaration of a dividend, but this plan was not approved by shareholders. Fortress was required to submit a dividend declaration for its year ended June 30, 2022, to the JSE by October 31. Fortress, however, said its memorandum of incorporation (MOI) prevented the payment…

TO MEET short-term glass supply shortfalls in South Africa, Ardagh Glass Packaging – Africa (AGP), a subsidiary of Ardagh Group, is on track with its Nigel 3 extension plan, which was ex- pected to be commissioned in late 2023. Earlier this year Ardagh completed its R18 billion acquisition of Consol with a R3bn Nigel extension plan in hand to broaden its Africa footprint. AGP said in a statement this week, it planned a further extension of its Nigel production facility in Gauteng to support customers’ current and projected demand growth over the next few years. This investment in a third furnace (N3) follows the recently commissioned Nigel 2 (N2). AGP said the lead time to build a new glass furnace was 18 to 24 months and it took…