12 INTEGRATED ANNUAL REPORT 2023 We close the chapter of another remarkable year, one that will be remembered for its extremes; buoyant export markets, great sales volumes, aggressive timber price hikes, tempered with the paradoxical ongoing deteriorating logistics performance by Transnet Port and Rail, record flooding in April and May, fuel price hikes and the negative impact of the Russian-Ukraine conflict worldwide. We again marketed more than 2.2 million tonnes of members’ timber and were able to pass on substantial timber price increases to our members. In fact, the Eucalyptus and Acacia timber prices moved by 34% and 27% respectively, the single largest annual movement in decades. In solid trading conditions, we chipped and exported the full capacity of Guaranteed Supplied Contracts (GSC) and mill volumes, also securing multi-year contracts with the two largest Chinese pulp manufacturers. Our export volumes peaked at over 1.8 million tonnes. Our ongoing relationships with key Japanese customers continue to reach significant milestones. The conflict in Europe certainly generated a fair amount of interest for our chips, and we received many enquiries from both wood pulp and energy buyers. On a spot basis, we sent a shipment to a new market in Spain, but we were wary of moving volume from existing customers to what seemed likely to be a very temporary demand, and rightly so – the European interest in South African woodchips has all but dried up, with energy concerns mostly dealt with and many countries back to “businessas-usual” despite the conflict. We remain well poised to pursue those strategic enquiries from Europe that are aligned to our own objectives. Our domestic markets have been steadied this year, arguably becoming more reliable and our domestic sales hit a record high of 449 000 tonnes. Our expected challenges with all things Transnet continued to play out, and costs incurred due to vessel delays sadly reached a record high for the year under review. However, we continue to exert influence in the ports and are now actively involved in assisting the ports with equipment breakdowns, overhauls and technical back-up in efforts to improve Transnet maintenance efforts and minimise vessel delays. We have strong representation at a national level in port councils and are ably represented by Forestry South Africa (FSA) as they pursue rail interventions with the Presidency and Transnet directly General Manager’s Report DANN Y KNO E S E N
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