Despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the logistics industry, Namport's revenue increased by 11% for the fiscal year 2021–2022.
The company's revenue increased from N$1.11 billion during the previous financial year to N$1.23 billion.
The chief executive officer of Namport says the financial year under review included mixed fortunes for the state enterprise.
Andrew Kanime indicated that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a shortage of vessels for Namibian ports.
The situation was further worsened by the shortage of shipping containers, which affected the movement of various commodities, he explained.
"Towards the end of the year, the start of the Russian-Ukraine war led to further escalations in energy and commodity prices, driving up inflation while also disrupting supply chains. Despite this otherwise gloomy picture, I am pleased to report that Namport has really been resilient, especially against the backdrop of a tough operational and market environment."
Kanime says the company had to look at innovative ways of making money.
"We went out across the country and into the region to harness all the volumes we could and, in collaboration with the support of our valued customers, jointly worked on workaround ways to bridge the shipping and container shortages. We introduced incentives for alternative shipping container configurations."
Together with strict austerity measures, Kanime says Namport was able to record an increase of 8% and 9% for containerised and non-containerised cargo, respectively.
Cross-border volumes further grew by 10%, while the overall vessel tonnage increased by 22%, due to a boost in petroleum, research, and foreign fishing vessels, among others.
In the previous financial year, Namport made an operating loss because it had to service its debts.
"We have been able to turn around from a loss-making position of N$38 million for the year ended 2021 to a profit of N$106 million for the year ended March 31st, 2022. Thus, we say, as a business, we were resilient despite the challenges that we were facing as an industry."
Following the depletion of its cash reserves due to the construction of the new container terminal, Kanime added that Namport is rebuilding the reserves to improve its financial standing.