Last Updated: 03 September 2010

Jo’burg-Durban fast train moves ahead
The framework for a speed rail link between Johannesburg and Durban is expected to be completed as early as March next year, the Director General for Transport George Mahlalela said this week.
With the Government having committed to upgrading the rail network in the country over the next 20 years, a high-speed link between Durban and Johannesburg is the first step.
Mahlalela said the details of the programme, known as the National Transport Master Plan, were still in the process of being finalised.

SA’s new car market ‘booming’
South Africa’s new car market boomed during August to its highest levels since July 2008 according to figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa).

August new vehicle sales rallied 36.9% year on year to 46 377 units, 12.2% up on the already good sales results for last month.

“The impending CO2 emissions tax levied by Government from September appears to have had at least one positive result: SA consumers have bought more new cars during August than any other month in the past two years,” says Ford Motor Company SA’ Vice President Marketing, Sales and Service, Dean Stoneley. “We anticipate continued growth through the remainder of the year.”

Passenger car sales rose 49.7% on August 2009 to 33 541 cars, 14.8% more than last month. Even Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) sales returned to positive growth despite not being affected immediately by emissions tax. LCV sales ended 4.7% better than July and 8.9% improved over the same time last year.

Heavy Commercial Vehicles virtually doubled sales during August (up 92.9% on August 2009), while Medium (up 8.7%) and Extra Heavy Commercial Vehicles (up 44.3%) continued their strong performances. Bus sales declined 38% over the same month last year in the wake of the Soccer World Cup.

PAYE registration alert for employers
Today marks the beginning of the Interim process for Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) reconciliations for the country’s employers, which is the first step in registering all employees in the formal sector for income tax, as announced earlier this year by the Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan, in the 2010 Budget.
The new Interim PAYE reconciliation process for employers from 1 September to the end of October will become an important part of the annual Tax Season.
Employers are required to submit two PAYE reconciliations of their payroll to Sars each year. The first submission is an interim reconciliation for the period 1 March to 31 August, with a deadline of 29 October 2010.

The second submission is the annual final reconciliation for the full tax year for the period 1 March to the end February. The deadline for this submission by employers is 31 May 2011.
The interim reconciliation process is exactly the same as the annual reconciliation declaration except that the declaration and employee Income Tax certificates are in respect of six months only. Employers should note that interim tax certificates (IRP5s) should not be issued to employees as they are for Sars administrative purposes only. Employees must still receive only the one tax certificate at the end of the final annual reconciliation.

In order to assist employers, payroll administrators and practitioners to meet these new obligations, Sars has released an updated and improved version of e@syFile Employer.
The free software package, which is available for download from www.sarsefiling.co.za, interfaces with payroll systems allowing employers to import the information from their payroll systems and quickly and easily submit this electronically to Sars.
Instructions on how to make an electronic submission or a manual submission are available on www.sarsefiling.co.za.

Taxpayers get in early
Sars has to date received just under 1.5-million tax returns from taxpayers for Tax Season 2010. This is a 35% increase compared to the 1 099 782 returns received by the same time last year, a spokesman said.
The number of returns submitted electronically so far for Tax Season 2010 is 1.4 million – or over 98% of returns received..

The deadline for electronic submissions via eFiling and Sars branch offices for non-provisional taxpayers is 26 November 2010.

The deadline for electronic submissions through Sars branches and eFiling for provisional taxpayers and trusts is 31 January 2011, which is the last working day of the month.

SA moves closer to BRIC membership
South Africa is confident that it could become the newest member of BRIC, a powerful economic coalition of the four largest developing nations in the world - Brazil, Russia, India and China.

This is according to International Relations and Cooperation’s Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane who was briefing the media following last week’s state visit to China which formed part of government’s worldwide tour to expand ties with fast-growing emerging economies.

South Africa is clamouring to become the fifth member of the BRIC economies. The country has held interactions with the Heads of State which have thus far shown interest in including South Africa.

The BRIC nations work to boost trade among themselves and South Africa is looking to expanded trade with the world, which will help it meet development needs, especially by improving infrastructure and livelihoods.

Fewer companies liquidated
Liquidations and insolvencies are down this year according to the latest information from Stats SA.
Liquidations or the first seven months of 2010 decreased by 1.4% (from 2 379 to 2 346) compared to the same period last year while the number of liquidations in July was down 34.3% (from 428 to 281) compared to last July.
Insolvencies for the first six months of the year decreased by 27.8% (from 2 643 to 1 909) while insolvencies for June 2010 were down 37.1% (from 558 to 351) compared with June 2009.

Trade growth of 40.9% in first half
China’s trade value increased 40.9% to US$1.62-trillion from January to July, according to the figures released by the Ministry of Commerce.

Shipping Gazette reported that exports grew 35.6% to US$850.49-billion and imports were up 47.2% to US$766.56-bn – while the trade surplus fell 21.2% to US$83.93-bn.

Trade between China and ASEAN countries grew 43.2% and was up 40.1% to India and 70.7% to Russia - which all showed higher growth rates than the traditional leading markets of the US, Europe and Japan.

In the month of July, exports grew 38.1% toUS$145.52-bn while imports increased were up 22.7% to $116.79-bn.

CMA CGM first half revenues up 41%
CMA CGM reported a profit of US$864-million in the first six months of the year on the back of growth in container shipments

Total revenue for the period was US$6.8-billion, up 41% compared with US$4.8-bn in last year’s first half, and freight volumes increased nearly 22% year-on-year to 4.4-m teu..

However, the improved results have not halted discussions with investors as the carrier seeks to cover debts totalling US$5.3-bn.

European freight forwarders set for better times
Danske Bank has revised the outlook for its freight forwarding index, predicting a further recovery in freight volumes compared to its initial “double-dip” prediction, according to transport equity analyst, Johannes Møller.

The survey, which questioned 160 European forwarders, showed the index for August came in at 61, well up on last year’s 50 and tidily up from the 66 index two months ago.

Battle over future of Dover Port heats up
Dover Harbour Board (DHB) has hit back at union claims that the port of Dover is too important to sell, as the battle over the future of Northern Europe’s busiest ferry port continues.

IFW reports that DHB said union Unite’s claim that it would be disastrous for the port to fall into the hands of private company was “misguided”.

DHB said the port needed to increase capacity to meet future demand. The only way it could do this was to be sold to a private company as its status as a trust port means it cannot borrow mone

News sourced from cargoinfo.co.za