/ 1 January 2002

Those big wheels keep on turning

South Africa’s private sector land freight volumes rose by 8% year-on-year in September to 45,754 million metric tons, while the volume of goods transported by state-owned Transnet, which operates

South Africa’s rail network, declined by 1% y/y to 14,686 million metric tons, Statistics South Africa said on Monday.

This brought the y/y increase for the third quarter for the private sector to 4,7%, while Transnet recorded a drop of 3%. The total volume increased by

2,7% y/y.

South Africa’s diesel sales volume, which is normally a good indicator of economic activity as it used by the agriculture, transport, and forestry sectors, soared by 10,2% y/y in the third quarter to a record 1,824-billion-litres, the South African Petroleum Industry Association (SAPIA) said on Thursday.

The seasonally adjusted total volume of goods transported during the third quarter of 2002 increased by an annualised 15,3% compared with the previous quarter.

Statistics South Africa had said on November 21 that the transport and communications sector had a seasonally adjusted annualised increase in real

value added of only 5,8%.

The total volume of goods transported during the first three quarters of 2002 increased by 0,6% compared with the first three quarters of 2001. This

increase was due to an increase of 2,1% in the total volume of goods transported by private sector enterprises.

However, this increase was partially counteracted by a decrease of 3,2% in the total volume of goods transported by Transnet Ltd during this period.

The total distance travelled by private sector enterprises during September 2002 increased by 9% (15,4-million kilometres) compared with September 2001.

The total gross transport income of private sector enterprises during September 2002 increased by 14,5% y/y. – I-Net Bridge