Freight forwarder Damco has announced that it will open a new office in Harare, Zimbabwe in October 2009.

According to Nils Havsager, Damco's regional manger for Africa, the expansion into Zimbabwe is a natural part of Damco's offering to customers, and with increased logistics activities anticipated in Harare, Damco also expects Zimbabwean importers and exporters to benefit from competitive rates due to increased volumes.

With signs of the Zimbabwe economy stabilising combined with general trends of a more liberal economic environment and increased access to foreign credit, Damco believes that the new office in Harare will play a central role in offering Zimbabwean and regional customers much better commercial opportunities and added flexibility. This includes cargo consolidation and a number of combinations of rail/road, break-bulk/containerisation to and from the ports of Durban, Beira, and Maputo.

"An example could be minerals out of Zambia, which are typically transported as break-bulk on trucks down to Durban because of the insufficient container availability. By using Harare as a logistics hub, we can now help our customers transport their break-bulk by truck from Zambia to Harare, containerise the cargo and then use rail as a cheaper means of transport out to ports of Beira, Maputo, and Durban," explained Nils Havsager.

"In Damco, we have a strong focus on following and responding to movements in the global market and our customers' sourcing requirements. While the traditional sourcing markets like China and India continue to be focus investment areas for both traditional export markets and domestic consumption, Africa is increasingly an attractive market for our customers, particularly in terms of our reefer services for frozen, fresh and chilled food products," says Nils Havsager.

Damco is already widely represented with 23 own offices across the African continent, including South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, and Malawi, as well as in most of the other East and West African countries.

By Staff reporter and agencies