South Africa
2.6 South Africa Storage Assessment

South Africa’s cargo handling, storage, and warehousing sector forms part of local and global supply chains and it depends on local and global trade and economic growth to produce goods requiring transportation through its ports and airports to final destinations. The cargo sector is influenced by economic conditions, trade and consumer buying power and is highly reliant on key players in the transport infrastructure and transport facilitator sectors (eg. Transnet and SAA).

Warehousing and storage depots are found in and around major multimodal transport nodes (sea to road and rail, air to road) normally situation within or in close proximity to large metro poles. Cargo handling and storage facilities are generally located with municipally zoned areas either within metropolis semi-urban zones or semi-rural zones.

Numerous national and multimodal (predominantly privately owned) freight warehousing and logistics entities operates within South Africa, some smaller firms providing single service (depot or transport or other with subcontracting of additional services as and when required) whilst other larger firms offer package / bouquet of services under one umbrella (generally asset heavy). Commercial companies in this sector are easy to locate and contact via their web presence.

Since the 1990’s grain storage was transferred back into the hands of the private sector – with no more government grain storage contracts via control or marketing boards. These private companies own 85% of the total maize storage capacity in the country, which is currently 16,3 million tons. There are 432 silos, of which 172 are on-farm (mostly small – a few 100 tons only) and 260 are commercial. The commercial silos, owned by 17 silo owners, account for 94% of the available silo capacity country-wide. In South Africa there are three major commercial silo owners, namely Afgri, NWK and Senwes, who own 73% of the available storage capacity within the national grain storage market. Other important players are VKB and Suidwes.

The National Chamber of Milling (NCM) is an influential non-profit organization representing the South African wheat and maize milling industry. Membership is voluntary and currently comprised of organizations actively and directly involved in commercial wheat and white maize milling markets.

For contact information regarding grains and milling companies, please follow the link : https://www.grainmilling.org.za/wheat-maize/

For more information on storage company contact details, please see the following link: 4.6 Storage and Milling Companies Contact List.

Commercial Storage

Commercial storage in the country is relatively easily available with possibility of short- or long term rental. Small to large logistics firms are able to storage or warehousing capacity as either an owned asset or subcontract to avail a flexible bouquet of service offerings to their prospective customers. Integrated warehouse management systems (including cloud based platforms) enable visibility of stock movements between receipt and dispatch. In all the storage capability within the South African market is quite sophisticated and able to service most needs especially in the industrial areas of major centres close to transportation hubs.

Location

Owner

Available for Rent

Capacity (m²)

Type [1]

Access [2]

Condition [3]

National

Grindrod Intermodal

Yes

340 000

Open, warehouse

Raised-siding , flat

Appears intact

National

Bidvest SACD

Yes

100 000

Warehouse

Raised-siding , flar

Appears intact

[1] Warehouse Type: Open storage, container, rub-hall, silo, concrete, other, unspecified

[2] Warehouse Access: Raised-siding, flat

[3] Warehouse condition: Appears intact, appears damaged, under construction/repair

Storage Used by Humanitarian Organizations

Aid organisations assessed are utilising a mixed model for their storage needs, whereby national planning and stockpiling is centralized for procurement control and accounting at a per use basis 3rd party logistics and warehousing service provider, while field / project storage is facilitated by owned / leased compound storage capacity augmented to support the project as needed.

Location

Organization

Sharing Possibility

Capacity

(MT / m² / m³)

Type [1]

Access [2]

Condition [3]

Pretoria / Johannesburg

Red Cross

Yes , central warehouse outsourced to commercial 3PL

 TBA

Warehouse

Loading bays

Good

Cape Town

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Southern Africa

TBA

TBA




[1] Warehouse Type: Open storage, container, rub-hall, silo, concrete, other, unspecified

[2] Warehouse Access: Raised-siding, flat

[3] Warehouse condition: Appears intact, appears damaged, under construction/repair

Public Sector Storage

Limited storage of emergency stocks are held, depending on the scale of a disaster / emergency the management of such an event is coordinated by municipal authorities for localised events, across multiple municipal district would be coordinated at a provincial level and across provincial borders will be coordinated nationally. Each governing district / level will declare a disaster to national structures for conferring and request for financing of emergency supplies, at this stage affecting districts will make municipal depots and warehouses available or lease as required. Distribution from these facilities will by managed by the governing district to registered and accredited NGO’s service the affected communities.

Location

Ministry / Agency

Use Possibility

Capacity

(MT / m² / m³)

Type [1]

Access [2]

Condition [3]

Within local government area

Local government social protection and disaster management structures

Yes

Not available

Warehousing and yard depots

Both raised-siding and ground level

Not available.

[1] Warehouse Type: Open storage, container, rub-hall, silo, concrete, other, unspecified

[2] Warehouse Access: Raised-siding, flat

[3] Warehouse condition: Appears intact, appears damaged, under construction/repair

Cold Chain

In recent years, so called, pharma logistics has become more prevalent with a few large logistics firms being capable of facilitating the end-to-end from manufacturer / import site to field delivery of temperature controlled regulated substances. Some smaller niche operators are also present in the country with capability to deliver from warehouse to retail sites / warehouse to door / field locations.

Management of protocols and compliance with regard to the storage and distribution medicines and vaccines will however remain with the cargo owner as the services currently available for pharmaceutical logistics are by in large converted courier services with temperature controller warehouses and delivery vehicles.

Location

Organization / Owner

Type [1]

Cooling /  Power [2]

Quantity

Total Capacity (m³)

Condition

National

CCS Logistics

Cold rooms +25 to -60 degrees Celsius

Compression

13

143 000 Mt

Appears intact

[1] Cold Room Positive, Cold Room Negative, Refrigerator, Freezer,

[2] Compression, Absorption, Solar, Other, unspecified


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