• Disasters

NamPort: No reason to panic – yet

- 2022-04-01 08:53:00

Erwin Leuschner
No immediate negative impact on imports to Namibia is expected and there is no need to panic at this time.
So says NamPort in their latest Quayside Bulletin newsletter. In it, the port authority looks at how the war in Ukraine will affect business, coming to the conclusion that “there may be a risk with long-term, serious consequences”.
According to NamPort, the war will likely “trigger price shocks worldwide” and hit poor households, where food and fuel account for a large part of their spending, particularly hard. “Namibia must expect higher prices for bread, corn, flour, honey, aluminium canned drinks, cheese, cooking oil and many other products,” it said.
In 2021 alone, food and non-alcoholic beverages were responsible for about 20% of inflation. Should the war escalate, the economic damage would be even more devastating. “Imports of wheat, ammonium nitrate and poultry from Russia will undoubtedly be adversely affected as importers now source certain commodities from alternative or new suppliers,” it said.
NamPort mainly imports wheat, poultry, ammonium nitrate and sulphur from Russia and Ukraine.
“A few Namibian companies no longer source wheat from Russia and are looking for new suppliers in Europe, namely Latvia and Germany, as alternative sources,” it said.
According to NamPort, negotiations with the new suppliers in this regard are “at an advanced stage”.
It also states that Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are the main consumers of poultry imported through the port of Walvis Bay. “The poultry comes mainly from MHP, the largest deep-freeze storage facility in Ukraine, which was recently bombed and destroyed by Russian shelling (...). Poultry has since been sourced and imported mainly from the US, Turkey and Canada,” NamPort said.
With regards to ammonium nitrate, Namibian companies that previously imported it from Russia are now sourcing it from Latvia. “The next import shipment of 3 500 tonnes of ammonium nitrate is expected to arrive at the port of Walvis Bay on 20 May,” it said.
When it comes to sulphur, the situation is much more complicated, since it comes ashore in Walvis Bay and is mainly shipped to Zambia and the DRC. “Imports are mainly sourced from Kazakhstan, but loaded in the Russian port of Ust-Luga. Currently, there are no signs that the sulphur imports originating from Kazakhstan will be negatively affected by the sanctions against Russia. A ship is currently waiting off Ust-Luga to load sulphur – 15 000 tons of which have to be unloaded in Walvis Bay. Some local mines source sulphur mainly from the United Arab Emirates,” it said.
Although there is “no reason to panic yet”, NamPort warns: “The outlook is subject to extraordinary uncertainties, the economic consequences are already very serious.”