Star 2023-12-04

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana concurs with the Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to go ahead TRANSNET’S multi-billion rand guarantee facility from the National Treasury has been roundly welcomed as a step in the right direction, but industry players have cautioned that it was not a panacea for all the long-standing challenges that plague the State-owned logistics company. Treasury on Friday announced a R47 billion bailout for Transnet in a bid to support its recovery plan, but this amount is less than half of what Transnet had requested. Finance Minister Enoch Godon-gwana concurred with the Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to issue Transnet with a R47bn guarantee facility, effective immediately, in support of its recovery plan, including meeting its immediate debt obligations. This comes as Transnet swung into a loss…

THE AUTOMOTIVE Business Council (Naamsa) has warned of a serious economic downturn in the months ahead after new vehicle sales fell for the fourth month in a row due to logistical challenges and intensified power cuts. Naamsa on Friday said the challenges at the ports and across the entire freight rail network was impacting negatively on the vehicle production landscape and on new vehicle sales in South Africa. This comes as the vehicles market declined by 9.8% in November and recorded 45 075 registrations, compared to the 49 986 vehicle registrations recorded in the same month last year. This was the sixth month of declining sales this year, and the fourth consecutive month of negative growth. the new vehicle sales market, which is used as a measure to…

MANUFACTURING activity in South Africa could remain depressed for longer after sentiment plunged to its 10th consecutive month of decline amid deteriorating business conditions. The Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 48.2 points in November, up from 45.3 points in October, but still marking the 10th consecutive month of contraction in factory activity. This was the first increase following two months of a decline in the headline index, although the index failed to return to positive terrain above the 50-point mark which separates contraction from expansion. The PMI is an economic activity index based on a survey conducted by the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) and sponsored by Absa. The monthly surveys are conducted under a representative group of purchasing managers in the South African manufacturing sector.…

PBT GROUP’S normalised headline earnings per share fell by 14.3% to 28.3 cents in the six months to September 30, but the overall business was sound and the dividend was lifted by 4%. However, PBT’s management had resolved to dispose of PBT Australia to its local management, effective September 30, this year, PBT management said in the results released on Friday. The group would continue to focus on growing its profitable international operations in Europe and the UK markets. During the past 18 months, PBT Group (Australia), a wholly-owned subsidiary, underperformed. As at March 31, 2023, it had contributed 5% to group revenue and reported an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) loss of R3.5 million. Despite the PBT Australia team focusing on aligning…

“Transport operators face a 2024 of uncertainty due to the global geopolitical upheaval, economic instability, the elections, rising fuel costs, a heightened risk of fatal incidents, and violent social unrest that usually first targets transporters,” Justin Manson, sales director of Bridgestone’s global fleet management solution, Webfleet, said at the weekend. He said South Africa’s elections were likely to be held in the dark in many places, as load shedding persists. “The intense conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East provide a tense backdrop to the global struggle to control energy resources,” he said. According to Mordor Intelligence’s South Africa Freight and Logistics Market Analysis, the South Africa freight and logistics market size was estimated at $21.53 billion (R400.87bn) this year and was expected to reach $30.56bn by 2029…

QUANTUM Foods spent R52 million more in diesel costs and R35m on generators as it tried to stave off the effects of load shedding, worsening an already dire full year to end-September in which it also had to write off R155m in biological assets. With load shedding persisting, Quantum Foods was weighing further investments into diesel generators and could move its production operations to manual processes. The company’s broiler, egg production and animal feed production is power-intensive. CEO Hendrik Lourens said the com- pany was now planning to institute mitigatory measures to the power supply crisis, including “securing diesel with enough storage capacity” and planning “to continue farming manually and using satellite connectivity” for communication. “Interrupted electricity supply has direct and indirect impacts on Quantum Foods’ operations. We delayed…