October 22 - UAL-SA, the local subsidiary of global heavy lift line Universal Africa Lines (UAL), has reached the halfway point of a six-month contract to carry cement from Cape Town to Soyo, Angola where a major liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant is under

According to Haakon Rostad, UAL-SA managing director, UAL-SA is set to carry 65,000 tonnes of cement in one-tonne bags before completion of the contract in January 2010 for client Bechtel Construction.

UAL opened a South African branch in Cape Town in July 2009 with the aim of bringing a local presence to the African market. 

For three decades, UAL had supplied the West African region from Europe and the US. The establishment of an office in Cape Town allows the line to supply African consignees from within Africa.

Company CEO Roger Jungblat says: "South Africa is becoming an increasingly important source of supplies and services to support bustling activity in the West African oil theatre, stretching from Cape Town to Nigeria. The African Union is increasingly in favour of contained African trade, with a wealth of in-country laws requiring a large proportion of procurement to originate on the continent."