FMC Logistics

09/10/2026

Kenya has announced a proposed $3 billion electric vehicle investment involving Endelevu Enterprise Corporation and China's Geely. The proposal includes annual production capacity for 50,000 four-wheel vehicles and 100,000 two-wheelers, alongside 1,000 solar-powered charging hubs.

The agreement remains a memorandum of understanding, with financing and implementation arrangements still to be finalised.

China dominates global electric vehicle and battery manufacturing through enormous production scale, advanced technology, competitive pricing and integrated supply chains. Establishing production operations in Africa extends its industrial reach, develops regional markets and strengthens its commercial position.

China has clear vested interests in Kenya. Its manufacturers are expanding internationally, seeking new markets and production locations. The extent of Kenyan component manufacturing, local content and technology transfer remains unconfirmed.

SA has spent decades developing an automotive industry with established factories, component suppliers, engineering expertise, skilled employment and international export relationships.

Yet this industrial base faces increasing pressure from vehicle imports, declining competitiveness and uncertainty around localisation policy.

Particularly concerning is the re-emergence of semi-knocked-down (SKD) assembly in the light vehicle industry without enforceable deadlines for progression towards completely knocked-down (CKD) manufacturing.

SKD provides an entry point for investment. Its indefinite continuation allows manufacturers to operate with limited local content while established producers carry the considerable costs of deeper manufacturing and supplier development.

Government has acknowledged this concern and is considering time-bound transitions to CKD production. Implementation remains outstanding.

Kenya's proposed investment presents no established immediate threat to South African production. Its significance lies in Chinese automotive manufacturers pursuing new production opportunities across Africa while SA struggles to deepen localisation within its existing industrial base.

Investment capital follows commercial opportunity, market access and favourable operating conditions. China is pursuing those opportunities across Africa, while South Africa continues to tolerate arrangements that weaken incentives to manufacture components locally.

As international manufacturers establish production operations and commercial relationships elsewhere in Africa, South Africa risks surrendering future investment and industrial growth while its component manufacturing base comes under increasing pressure.

We have spent decades building an automotive industry. Allowing its manufacturing depth to erode while competing countries attract new investment is a costly failure of industrial policy and ex*****on.

09/10/2026

The Concrete Under South Africa's Freight Corridors Is Ageing

Most freight in South Africa travels by road, and every consignment crosses concrete. Bridges, overpasses, culverts, port aprons, hardstands and warehouse floors are all built from it, and much of it is ageing.

Reinforced concrete is typically designed to last 50 to 100 years. A large part of the concrete on our freight corridors was built in the 1960s and 1970s, and it is now reaching the end of its design life. When the steel inside concrete corrodes, it swells, cracks the surrounding concrete and weakens the structure. The damage often starts inside, before any cracks or rust stains appear on the surface.

The loads on these structures have increased. Trucks are heavier and more frequent than the designers of the 1960s could have planned for, and routes such as the N3 between Durban and Gauteng carry freight in large volumes every day, at all hours of the day and night. A reduced cross-section combined with higher demand narrows the safety margin on each structure.

For logistics, the effects are practical. A bridge that is closed or restricted to lighter loads adds distance, time and cost to every consignment that depends on it. A warehouse slab with damaged concrete limits racking and forklift operations. Port and depot hardstands that deteriorate slow down the movement of goods at the points where delays are most expensive.

In South Africa, this is becoming particularly urgent. There has been largely no servicing of this infrastructure in the last 30 years, and the deterioration is increasing. The people who see it first are the drivers, warehouse teams, planners and business owners who work along these routes every day, and they depend on the concrete holding up without thinking about it.

Where the existing concrete allows, targeted repair and strengthening can extend the service life of a structure by decades, and the structure can often stay in use during the work. This is where much of the development and research in fastening systems and solutions is now focused: anchoring safely into concrete that is already decades old, adding reinforcement to existing beams, slabs and walls, and designing repairs digitally before anyone is on site. Safety depends on every connection in the structure, from the smallest anchor to the main element, working as intended.

There is also a real opportunity here. South African engineers, contractors and installers can build skills and businesses around repairing and strengthening concrete, and logistics operators who know the condition of the concrete on their routes and in their facilities can plan maintenance before a failure forces a closure. Early planning lets owners budget and schedule the work around freight movements.

The technology to repair and strengthen concrete is available now, and it is used on infrastructure abroad. The freight corridors, ports and warehouses that the South African economy relies on are the places to use it.

06/10/2026

Good warehousing is about understanding what the customer actually needs and having the operational experience to build the right level of control around it.

At FMC Warehousing and Logistics in Kempton Park, that means working comfortably with customers whose operations, systems and reporting requirements can be very different.

A large corporate customer may have its own ERP environment and require integration with FMC’s warehouse management system. At that level, stock movements, transactions and information need to move accurately between systems.

FMC also has a portfolio of smaller customers whose operations require a different approach. Their inventory is still managed through FMC’s warehouse management system, but without direct integration with their own systems. Every movement into and out of the warehouse is recorded, providing the information required for stock control, movement history and age analysis. That information can be shared daily, weekly or monthly, depending on what the customer needs to manage its business.

The capability lies in being able to accommodate both. Technology provides enormous functionality, but experienced warehouse operators know how much technology a particular operation requires, how information should flow and what controls need to sit behind it.

That experience extends beyond the system itself. It comes from understanding stock, movement, timing, reporting and the commercial realities behind the inventory sitting in the building. This is the kind of operational knowledge Christiaan Botha, Operations Director at FMC, brings to the management of very different customer requirements.

Warehousing is ultimately about giving customers confidence in what is being held on their behalf. They need to know what they have, where it is, how long it has been there, what has moved and when, with the information available in a form that works for their business.

04/10/2026

CHINA HAS BUILT MORE AUTOMOTIVE CAPACITY THAN IT NEEDS

Ford CEO Jim Farley has been examining the scale and capability of Chinese automotive manufacturing. The numbers explain the competitive position.

China exported approximately 3 million vehicles in 2022. In 2026 it is expected to export around 12 million. In four years, Chinese manufacturers have found international markets for an additional 9 million vehicles a year.

China has annual vehicle production capacity estimated at around 50 million units, while its domestic market absorbs roughly 29 million. The 21 million gap is capacity equivalent to more than two-thirds of China's domestic market sitting above current demand.

Capacity is only one part of the equation. Oliver Wyman estimates Chinese EV manufacturers can have a 25% to 40% cost advantage over Western manufacturers. Some can move from development to market in 18 to 24 months, against traditional cycles closer to five years.

Then add the vehicles themselves. Chinese manufacturers are producing high-quality, technologically advanced vehicles with strong engineering, battery technology, software and specification. Farley has identified BYD as a manufacturer Ford needs to understand and has driven Xiaomi EVs. Ford works with CATL on battery technology. Ford is studying these manufacturers for what they do well.

Combine the numbers. China has enormous capacity available for exports, lower production costs, much shorter development cycles and products capable of competing on quality and technology. A manufacturer taking five years to develop a model can face a Chinese competitor bringing successive generations to market while it completes one.

These advantages reinforce each other. Scale gives battery and component suppliers enormous volumes. Volume reduces unit costs. Lower costs allow harder competition on price and specification. Export growth creates further scale. Faster development gets improved technology into the next vehicle sooner.

China has built the industrial base beneath this: batteries, electronics, components, tooling, materials, engineering, software and supplier capacity.

There are legitimate questions about state support, subsidies, market access and the conditions under which this capability developed. The US and Europe are entitled to protect their industrial interests. But protection and competitiveness are different things.

A tariff can increase the price of a Chinese vehicle in the US. It cannot reduce Ford's manufacturing cost. A restriction can delay market entry. It cannot turn a five-year development cycle into two years or build a deeper domestic supply chain.

China has built scale, surplus capacity, lower costs, supplier depth, development speed, quality and technology simultaneously.

That is the competitive reality Ford is confronting.

Ford CEO Jim Farley says China's auto industry has 50 million units of production capacity — enough to serve the entire North American market. He drove a Chinese EV himself to sound the alarm inside Ford, calling BYD's rise a gift that forced American automakers to truly compete.

01/10/2026

SA has spent years rewarding vehicle assembly as though it were manufacturing. It is not.

An SKD operation imports most of the value in a vehicle and assembles the kit here. Manufacturing creates more of that value here through local components, tooling, engineering and technical skills.

When both receive industrial support without sufficient distinction, importing wins. Why invest in tooling for a local component when it can be imported? Why develop a local supplier when the parent company's supplier can put it into the kit? Why transfer engineering capability when the product architecture can remain offshore?

From the outside, both can look like manufacturing: a factory, production line, workers and finished vehicles leaving the gate. Follow the money. With SKD, much of the engineering, tooling, component manufacture, supplier margin and technical knowledge has already been paid for elsewhere. SA gets final assembly. The countries making the components get the deeper industrial value.

The dtic's review of SAAM 2035 and the APDP has considered time limits on SKD operations to force progression towards CKD production. Due in September 2026, the review has passed its deadline without a final published outcome.

SKD can be used to enter the SA market, but it cannot be a permanent industrial model.

Government has not published the deadline for moving to CKD, localisation milestones, consequences for missing them or transition requirements for existing SKD operations.

Existing SKD operations should not be protected because they arrived under the old rules. Give them a transition period, establish what they must localise, put dates against it and make future incentives conditional on compliance.

That takes political courage and negotiating skill. Manufacturers will protect their investments. Government should protect SA's industrial base with equal determination.

SA brings a substantial market, automotive infrastructure, incentives and an established supplier base to that negotiation. The return should be deeper productive investment.

The Automotive Business Council reports R137-billion in audited local value addition in 2025. Local content is approximately 40% at OEM level and 50% at Tier 1. Raising those numbers means moving economic activity out of imported kits and into SA factories and suppliers.

The dtic is also reviewing production rebate certificates, the ad valorem tax structure and parameters governing local value addition. All come down to the same commercial decision: import the value or create it here?

Allow SKD as an entry route. Put a deadline on it. Require increasing localisation. Move operators towards CKD. Apply the transition to existing operations and new investment. Then enforce it.

It has to be asked: why should South Africa support other countries’ drive to maintain production output, at the expense of its own domestic production that supports national economic value and sustai…

01/10/2026

PICKING & PACKING: WHERE WAREHOUSING BECOMES FULFILMENT

Holding stock is only one part of warehousing. The real operational value comes when that stock can be accurately selected, prepared and released when the customer needs it.

Picking and packing is one of the services we provide at FMC Logistics. Customer inventory can be received into our facility, held under warehouse control, picked against specific orders and prepared for dispatch as palletised loads. This allows businesses to use FMC as an operational extension of their own supply chain rather than simply somewhere to store stock.

For inbound supply chains, that creates flexibility. Larger quantities can be delivered into FMC, received and held centrally, then progressively released according to orders, production requirements, branch demand or customer schedules.

For outbound logistics, the same facility becomes a practical distribution point. Orders are picked from available inventory, checked, consolidated where required, palletised and prepared for onward transport. That reduces unnecessary handling and allows stock movement to be coordinated from one location.

Our position in Isando, Kempton Park is a significant part of that offering. FMC is centrally located within Gauteng's major industrial and logistics corridor, with practical access to the East Rand, Johannesburg, Pretoria and the major road networks connecting Gauteng with the rest of South Africa.

It also places us close to OR Tambo International Airport and within one of the country's most concentrated manufacturing, distribution and freight environments.

That location works in both directions. Inbound stock can move efficiently into the warehouse, while outbound orders can be prepared and released back into the transport network without adding unnecessary distance to the supply chain.

For businesses managing seasonal inventory, overflow stock, changing order volumes or multiple delivery points, picking and packing provides another level of flexibility within the FMC warehousing offering.

Receive it. Hold it. Pick it. Pack it. Release it.

That is what turns warehouse capacity into an operating supply-chain resource.

25/09/2026

TRIM Opens Bidding for 20 Rail Sidings Across South Africa

State-owned Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager (TRIM) has issued Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for 20 rail sidings across the country, the latest and largest tranche in its ongoing programme to bring private operators onto South Africa's rail network.

The sidings span three regions. In the eastern region, 13 sites are on offer: Pyramid South, Ngagane, Hlobane, Panbult, Rietkuil, Carolina, Klaserie, Mica, Pienaarsrivier, Bela Bela, and Marikana A, B and C. The western region contributes six sites: Bellville Autosort, Lutzville Station, Putsonderwater, Worcester, Upington and Orchard. Krugersdorp, in the central region, completes the list.

Successful bidders will lease, invest in, develop, operate and maintain their assigned siding for a minimum of 10 years. Site visits will run over the coming weeks, with bid submissions due by November 30.

This RFP round builds on two earlier releases in 2026. In March, TRIM opened bidding on three sidings — Klaserie, Krugersdorp and Ngagane — through a multi-stage process covering prequalification, functional evaluation and a final price assessment. In April, a further nine sidings across the eastern and central regions followed. Across both rounds, the commercial terms have stayed consistent: market-related rental structures, a requirement for a valid B-BBEE certificate, and mandatory safety, health and regulatory compliance. Bidders must also show how their proposals will improve turnaround times and strengthen road-to-rail integration, typically through upgrades such as rail line refurbishment, loading and handling facilities, drainage, lighting, security and access roads.

The RFPs sit within TRIM's wider restructuring of South Africa's freight rail system. TRIM was vertically separated from Transnet Freight Rail in 2024 to open the network to third-party train operating companies (TOCs), cargo owners and logistics providers. A Network Statement published in December 2025 set out the initial access tariff structure for TOCs, using a two-part model based on train kilometres and gross ton kilometres, with rates varying by commodity and corridor. The statement is updated annually on April 1.

Funding remains a constraint on the broader programme. TRIM has estimated it needs R65 billion for network maintenance and capital expenditure over five years, with Transnet able to fund roughly half from its own resources. To close the gap, TRIM is seeking support through National Treasury's Budget Facility for Infrastructure and is in discussions with key corridor customers, including coal customers, about cost-recovery funding models for infrastructure investment.

TRIM CEO Moshe Motlohi says the sidings programme reflects the organisation's commitment to transparent, market-driven access to strategic rail assets. He has previously described the approach as strengthening partnerships, improving service delivery and unlocking value across TRIM's rail estate under a long-term, regulated framework.

The 20-siding release marks a significant scale-up from earlier rounds and signals that TRIM intends to move through its full portfolio of sidings on a rolling basis, rather than a single large tender.

State-owned Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager (TRIM) is seeking private operators for 20 rail sidings across the South African rail network as part of ongoing reforms aimed at introducing private sector participation. The sidings on offer include 13 sidings in TRIM’s eastern region, comprising ...

24/09/2026

CHIRUNDU: AFRICA BUILT THE BORDER OF THE FUTURE. THEN LET IT FALL APART.

In December 2009, Chirundu became Africa’s first functioning One-Stop Border Post. Sitting between Zimbabwe and Zambia on the North-South Corridor, it was intended to remove the duplication that made moving freight between African countries painfully slow.

Initially, the results were extraordinary.

Before the One-Stop Border Post, trucks could take around 120 hours to cross. By June 2012, average crossing time had reportedly fallen to about 25 hours. Vehicle volumes increased by 65%, with estimated savings of approximately US$600,000 a day. Chirundu became an example of what regional trade facilitation could achieve.

Seventeen years later, Zimbabwe is preparing to spend tens of millions of dollars fixing it again.

Freight volumes increased while the infrastructure aged. Office and processing capacity became inadequate. Traffic flows were poorly separated. ICT infrastructure deteriorated and system downtime disrupted operations. Coordination between Zimbabwean and Zambian agencies remained inconsistent. Zimbabwe's National Competitiveness Commission reported in 2025 that only 20% of respondents rated the ICT facilities as good and recorded concerns about facilitation payments associated with delays.

Chirundu's decline wasn't a failure of the One-Stop Border Post concept. The border was not adequately maintained, expanded and technologically upgraded as demand changed. A border crossing also depends upon two countries and multiple agencies continuing to operate as one system. When that coordination weakens, infrastructure cannot keep freight moving.

Zimbabwe is now rebuilding Chirundu through private capital.

The Chirundu Border Consortium has a 20-year Build-Own-Operate-Transfer concession. The project was originally valued at approximately US$66.8 million, although subsequent financing figures have been higher. Major construction is expected to begin in October 2026 and take about 18 months, covering roads, parking, weighbridges, buildings, ICT and traffic-processing infrastructure.

Chirundu is also part of a much larger freight strategy.

Beitbridge has already been modernised through a roughly US$296 million PPP, while investment is being made in the Harare-Chirundu road. Together they create:

Beitbridge → Harare → Chirundu → Zambia → Copperbelt and DRC.

Zimbabwe is competing for freight moving between Southern African ports and the mineral economies of Zambia and the DRC. That traffic generates road charges, fuel sales, clearing and forwarding, warehousing, accommodation and vehicle services.

But Chirundu will operate on a user-pays principle. Private investors fund the development and recover their investment through charges during the concession. Beitbridge has already demonstrated that major infrastructure investment can arrive with additional border access charges.

Higher charges may be commercially justified by shorter crossing times, greater vehicle utilisation and more annual trips. They become harder to justify if trucks continue waiting because ICT fails, agencies duplicate processes, staffing is inadequate or one country clears freight faster than the other can receive it.

Africa created a border system in 2009 that reduced a five-day crossing to roughly one day. Over the following seventeen years, infrastructure, technology, capacity and coordination failed to keep pace.

Now another substantial investment is being made.

Its performance can be measured: what does a truck pay, how long does it take to cross, and how many productive hours does the new system return to the transporter?

Those numbers will tell us whether Chirundu has been rebuilt, or merely refinanced.

23/09/2026

If you’re a small and independent food import-export company, FMC Logistics can assist from the moment your shipment arrives at the harbour.

From documentation and transport through to warehousing and distribution, FMC manages the logistics required to move your goods into South Africa and onwards into the SADC region.

Goods can be transported to FMC’s warehouse facilities anywhere in South Africa, where full Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) manage the flow of stock in and out of the warehouses.

That gives importers and exporters access to the infrastructure and systems required to manage their goods through the supply chain, without having to coordinate every stage between port, warehouse and final destination themselves.

For businesses moving products into South Africa or distributing into the wider SADC region, FMC provides the warehousing, logistics and distribution capability to manage that movement from arrival through to delivery.

17/09/2026

NEED WAREHOUSE SPACE? FMC CAN BUILD THE SOLUTION AROUND YOUR STOCK.

You may have an import shipment arriving and need somewhere to receive and hold it. Your existing warehouse may be running out of capacity. You may be carrying additional seasonal or promotional stock, bringing a new product into South Africa, waiting for customer release dates or looking for a logistics partner without committing your entire supply chain.

FMC Logistics provides flexible warehousing, storage, inventory management, transport and distribution solutions from its operation in Isando, Kempton Park.

The requirement can begin with warehouse space and expand according to what the business actually needs.

FMC's services include:

• Food-grade warehousing for non-perishable food and beverage products
• General warehousing and storage
• Short-term and overflow warehousing requirements
• Stock and inventory management
• Warehouse Management System (WMS) inventory control
• Lot and expiry-date tracking
• Specialised material handling
• Picking, packing and order fulfilment
• Cross-docking
• Load consolidation
• Full truckload (FTL) transport
• Less-than-truckload (LTL) transport
• Bulk transportation and deliveries
• Single-case distribution
• Route planning and transport management
• Reverse logistics
• Customised reporting
• Integrated supply chain management
• Cold-storage solutions through specialist partners

FMC works with FMCG, food and beverage, retail, packaging, chemicals, mining equipment and other product categories.

For food and beverage businesses, FMC's core expertise is food-grade, non-perishable warehousing. The facility holds a Certificate of Acceptability from the Department of Health and Social Development and has consistently achieved above 97% in food processor-level audits.

Stock is managed through WMS technology, providing control over inventory levels, lot information and expiry dates. Facilities are supported by electronic surveillance, 24/7 security patrols and certified fire-protection systems.

There is also considerable flexibility in how FMC can be used.

An importer may need a shipment received, stored and released progressively. A manufacturer may need overflow capacity. A growing business may want to outsource warehousing rather than invest in additional premises, people and equipment. A brand owner may need stock held centrally, orders picked and deliveries distributed to customers. An established business may want FMC to manage a much larger part of its route to market.

The conversation does not have to start with a massive logistics contract.

It can start with the stock you need somewhere to put.

FMC Logistics
16 Industrie Street, Isando, Kempton Park
011 390 3775
[email protected]
www.fmclogistics.co.za