A new industry organisation has been formally launched in a bid to facilitate greater collaboration among South Africa’s container stakeholders, as well as to provide a unified voice as the freight logistics sector undergoes far-reaching reform.

Known as the Container User Forum (CUF), the organisation has been established as a non-profit company with a board led by Juanita Maree, who is also the CEO of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders, and an executive team, led by CEO Brenda Magqwaka, who previously worked at Transnet Port Terminals.

The CUF aims to act as a neutral platform similar to those that have been developed on the bulk corridors for coal and iron-ore, and which proved effective in highlighting the problems that led to the creation of the National Logistics Crisis Committee.

The CUF will seek to attract members from shipping lines, cargo owners and operators so as to address shared problems in a more coordinated way than has been the case previously.

This was emphasised at the launch by Nosipho Damasane, who is also the chairperson the Richards Bay Coal Terminal. She acknowledged that there were a number of individual associations in the sector, but that there had been gaps in the ability of the container industry to speak with a unified voice.

Seven working groups have been created with the specific focus areas of ports and terminals, rail and intermodal, road and gate flow, back-of-port and depots, data and research, skills and safety, as well as sustainability and energy.

The launch comes amid ongoing reforms in the sector, which is opening up space for private-sector participation on the rail network and at the ports.

It also comes against the backdrop of a government target of increasing rail freight volumes to 250-million tons by 2030, which would require a major recovery in container volumes, with bulk volumes, notably manganese volumes, having underpinned the most recent improvements.

In 2024/25, 160-million tons were railed, having slump to only 149-million tons in 2022/23 from a high of 226-million tons in 2017/18.

The central role of the CUF will be to highlight pinch points that prevent the use of rail, facilitating collaboration to overcome logistics problems without breaching South Africa’s competition legislation.