The Ports Regulator of South Africa will soon announce anew port tariffs structure that will include a cut of about 40% in the tariff on exported containers. This step is part of the Transnet National Ports Authority‘s strategy to reduce South African port charges, which are seen as among the highest in the world, because it erodes the competitiveness of South Africa’s exports.

This announcement was made during a colloquium on the impact of administered prices on the manufacturing sector. The purpose of the colloquium was to get all the stakeholders together to try and find a solution to the challenges. It had become clear that the stakeholders did not have a regular opportunity to engage on the issue of administered prices.

In addition to the new tariffs, the authority is proposing a reworking of its tariff structure, which if accepted by the regulator, will see higher charges for bulk commodities, up to 68%. South African port tariffs were at least 8.7 times more than the global average for containers and 7.4 times the global average for automotive cargo.

Transnet’s CEO said the shift in the tariff burden was aligned with the government’s manufacturing growth strategy. The mining sector had been hugely subsidised by a tariff structure weighted in favour of raw exports, at the expense of the manufacturing and agricultural sectors. Department of Trade and Industry has also welcomed the expected tariff reduction, saying it would be a major boost for exporters. 

One would therfore like to believe that these tariff reductions will be extended to agriculture and agro-processing. Hopefully ocean carriers will not see this as an opportunity to increase their tariffs!