Activity is improving as lockdown eases, Grindrod says

Freight and financial services company Grindrod said on Friday that it was seeing increasing demand for its services as SA’s lockdown eases.

Mineral rail cargo flow to the group’s Matola and Maputo terminals was ramping up following the reopening of international borders, the group said in a trading update.

The road haulage bottleneck at the Komatipoort and Lebombo border post between SA and Mozambique is being resolved and rail capacity increased to ensure improved product flow into Mozambique.

May commodity flows were at 300,000 tonnes for Matola with total terminal throughput at 600,000 million tonnes for the month. This represents 45% of normal monthly capacity.  

The group said Grindrod Bank was operating cautiously, but deposit levels — excluding retail deposits — had remained stable over the period, at R8.9bn at the end of May, from R8.7bn at the end of March.

In afternoon trade on Friday, Grindrod’s share was down 0.63% to R3.16, having fallen about 37% so far in 2020.

gernetzkyk@businesslive.co.za