{"id":4018,"date":"2026-07-09T15:26:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T12:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/supply-chain-disruption-choking-southern-african-trade-growth\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T15:26:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T12:26:51","slug":"supply-chain-disruption-choking-southern-african-trade-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/supply-chain-disruption-choking-southern-african-trade-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Supply chain disruption choking Southern African trade growth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lemon\"\n

Photo:
\n\u00a9 Kwiktor
\n| Dreamstime.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Southern Africa\u2019s trade growth is being strangled by container shipping\u2019s inability to absorb increasing volumes as the sector contends with constrained port, vessel, and inland logistics networks brought about conflict in the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s citrus exports were particularly hard hit by the crisis, with year-to-date exports having collapsed some 24% when measured against last year\u2019s numbers, down from 15.2m cartons to 11.5m.<\/p>\n

While small in terms of total merchandise \u2013 4% of South Africa\u2019s export activity \u2013 the Middle East is a region the country is particularly exposed to when it comes to fruit and meat, which have provided substantial injections for the South African economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis makes the UAE\/Saudi-linked routing and demand risks material, despite the limited aggregate share,\u201d one source told The Loadstar<\/em>, while noting other regions have stepped in to fill the void.<\/p>\n

With total year-to-date citrus exports having climbed a little over 2%, to 62.1m cartons, Asia, Europe, and the UK are playing an increasingly prominent role, European volumes topping 24.3m (up 18.6% year on year), while 6.2m cartons have headed towards the UK (12.7%), and 2.9m (28.2%) across the Asia.<\/p>\n

\u201cCitrus is ramping up,\u201d the source added.<\/p>\n

More broadly, South Africa experienced something of a record-breaking month in May, with global container port throughput surpassing 17.3m teu, according to Container Trades Statistics (CTS), \u201chighlighting the resilience of underlying cargo demand despite\u201d.<\/p>\n

Month on month, that represented 6.2% growth, despite the persistent issues with congestion, schedule disruption, and the wider supply chain pressures that have plagued the continent more broadly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis suggests current strains are being driven not by weak volumes, but by the system\u2019s difficulty in absorbing elevated flows across already-constrained port, vessel, and inland logistics networks,\u201d added the source.<\/p>\n

Seven-day average vessel waiting times at Cape Town and Durban have ticked past the 48-hour mark, and it seems that in both cases, surging reefer demand for citrus exports are responsible \u2013 although each port has nuances of its own compounding this.<\/p>\n

Kuehne + Nagel has singled out Cape Town as \u201cthe port\u2026 most constrained\u201d in its network, and that together with reefer demand, the gateway is also dealing with increased \u2018late-stack volumes\u2019, further constraining operations, with \u201ca high risk\u201d of delays and rollings imminent.<\/p>\n

At Durban the picture is more complex, with landside congestion and poor truck turnarounds, while the gateway is \u201ccurrently experiencing heightened tensions and sporadic disruptions, linked to anti-immigration protests\u201d.<\/p>\n

This article is \u00a9 The Loadstar. Reproduction, rewriting, or derivative use requires a license. Contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> for licensing enquiries.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo: \u00a9 Kwiktor | Dreamstime.com 09\/07\/2026 Southern Africa\u2019s trade growth is being strangled by container shipping\u2019s inability to absorb increasing volumes as the sector contends with constrained port, vessel, and inland logistics networks brought about conflict in the Persian Gulf. South Africa\u2019s citrus exports were particularly hard hit by the crisis, with year-to-date exports having 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\u00a9 Kwiktor | Dreamstime.com 09\/07\/2026 Southern Africa\u2019s trade growth is being strangled by container shipping\u2019s inability to absorb increasing volumes as the sector contends with constrained port, vessel, and inland logistics networks brought about conflict in the Persian Gulf. South Africa\u2019s citrus exports were particularly hard hit by the crisis, with year-to-date exports having…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phf4fX-12O","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/280549882"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikhailinvest.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}