Page 26 - Logistics News April 2021

News
DSV bags another to become

third-largest logistics company

Courtesy Southern Africa’s Freight News
TWO YEARS after the acquisition of Swiss-based
Panalpina, Danish transport and logistics company
DSV Panalpina has announced the acquisition of
Agility Global Integrated Logistics (GIL). The value of
the acquisition is US$ 4.2 billion.
GIL is part of Agility, a freight forwarding and
contract logistics provider (3PL), which recorded
revenue of US$ 4 billion in 2020, mainly related to air
and sea freight. It has a workforce of approximately
17,000 employees. Panalpina, will be substantially strengthened with the
DSV recently completed the integration of the acquisition and will consolidate its rank among the
company’s largest acquisition to date, the Swiss largest providers globally with close to 2.8 million
Panalpina. With the acquisition of GIL, it will become containers (TEUs) and more than 1.6 million tons of
the world’s third-largest transport and logistics air freight transported annually, says DSV Panalpina
company with a combined pro forma revenue of Group CEO Jens Bjørn Andersen.
approximately US$ 22 billion – an increase of around He said there were many good reasons to join
23 percent – and a combined workforce of more than forces with the Middle Eastern transport and logistics
70,000 employees. provider, which is strongly positioned in the Asia
The air and sea division, the largest in DSV Pacific (APAC) and the Middle East. •

SA freight will nally shortcut through Eswatini

Courtesy Business Insider SA

TRANSNET AND its counterpart, Eswatini Railways, The project is due to see 150km of new rail connect
have formally called for potential funders, those who the eastern end of a South African line at Lothair in
need to move freight, construction managers and Mpumalanga and connect with the western end of
builders of rolling stock to get in touch – as the long- an Eswatini line at Sidvokodvo. The lines that run to
planned Eswatini Rail Link (ESRL) project inches those endpoints will also require an upgrade – 282km
towards breaking ground. worth of upgrades for Transnet and 144km worth of
The state companies recently said they are upgrades on the Eswatini side.
looking for investors to help carry R29 billion in costs Most of Eswatini’s cargo comes from South Africa,
(from estimates done in 2016), construction partners mostly via road, and the new link could help change
and companies that can commit to moving volume that. But more significantly, the new link would
freight over the link. hook up to a north-south line that runs the length of
Eswatini. Run a train from Mpumalanga’s coal fields to
that junction and turn left, and it is soon in the major
port of Maputo. Turn right instead, and it is soon in the
major port of Richard’s Bay.
But though it is due to act as a backup route for
trains carrying coal for export, the ESRL is being
developed as a general freight line. Shifting 6.7 million
tons of freight a year onto that line will help with
congestion on the coal export link that runs from
Mpumalanga to Richard’s Bay south of Eswatini, says
Transnet. And it will be able to scale up, significantly,
with up to 12 trains a day each up to 2.5km long.
Transnet is now in the process of buying some
500 hectares of land required on the South African
side, while Eswatini Railways is securing about 700
hectares at its end, their combined project says. •

24 April 2021 | Logistics News