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Insights Centre
Sectors

Logistics

How the corridors, ports, railways, borders and warehouses that move goods are performing and changing.

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Value added by transport, storage and communication across SADCUS$61.1bn7.7% of output · +3.3% a year, last five years
SADC exports of the pillar's goodsUS$6.5bn2024
Deals in the last 12 months35US$7.9bn where the value is confirmed · 85 tracked in all
Subsectors84 with trade data

What this page answers

  • How are the main corridors performing in time and cost?
  • How busy are the ports, and how long do trucks wait at borders?
  • Which roads, railways and border posts are being built?
  • Where are warehouses and logistics parks growing?

South Africa has SADC's largest transport, storage and communication sector, at US$28.3bn

Value added by transport, storage and communication, US$, latest year, with its share of each economy

South AfricaUS$28.3bn7.8% of the economy
DRCUS$7.7bn10.9% of the economy
TanzaniaUS$7.3bn9.5% of the economy
ZambiaUS$3.9bn16.3% of the economy
AngolaUS$3.2bn2.8% of the economy
ZimbabweUS$2.3bn5.4% of the economy
MozambiqueUS$2.1bn10.2% of the economy
MadagascarUS$1.8bn11.0% of the economy
MauritiusUS$1.2bn9.6% of the economy
MalawiUS$1.1bn10.1% of the economy
BotswanaUS$1.0bn5.5% of the economy
NamibiaUS$608m5.0% of the economy
EswatiniUS$286m6.2% of the economy
SeychellesUS$157m8.6% of the economy
LesothoUS$89m4.3% of the economy
ComorosUS$84m5.6% of the economy
Source: UN Statistics Division·dotzedw Insights Centre

South Africa leads SADC on logistics (lpi)

Logistics Performance Index, score 1 to 5, latest year for each country. Click a bar for that country's logistics page.

01234South Africa3.70Botswana3.10Tanzania2.99 (2016)Namibia2.90Mozambique2.68 (2016)Malawi2.59 (2018)Comoros2.56 (2018)Zambia2.53 (2018)DRC2.50Mauritius2.50Zimbabwe2.50Madagascar2.30Lesotho2.28 (2018)Angola2.10median 2.55

Source: World Bank·dotzedw Insights Centre

Subsectors

8 in this pillar

Ports and shipping

Tracks
Throughput by cargo type, waiting times, terminal operators and concessions, berth and dredging works.
Signals ahead
Concession awards, berth and dredging contracts, new shipping services.

Select a figure for its trend. Source: CEPII BACI, dotzedw deals tracker.

Trade in detail

SADC sold US$808m of ports and shipping abroad in 2024, up 152.9% on five years earlier

Exports and imports of the products in this subsector by the 16 SADC countries, US$ (HS 8901)

0$200m$400m$600m$800m$1bn2012201420162018202020222024ExportsUS$808mImportsUS$451m
Source: CEPII BACI·dotzedw Insights Centre

Largest exporters, 2024

AngolaUS$785m
South AfricaUS$14m
MauritiusUS$6.5m
MozambiqueUS$1.4m
ZambiaUS$610k
TanzaniaUS$142k
DRCUS$60k
BotswanaUS$28k

Where the exports go

Rest of the worldUS$226m
European UnionUS$217m
SADCUS$145m
Rest of AfricaUS$132m
United StatesUS$68m
United KingdomUS$8.8m
SwitzerlandUS$8.3m
United Arab EmiratesUS$2.1m

Main products, 2024

Ships and boats (890190)US$634m
Ships and boats (890120)US$164m
Ships and boats (890110)US$9.4m

Each country's trade in ports and shipping every year since 2012, by partner is part of the Individual plan

US$19 a month or US$190 a year. Subscribe on dotzedw.com and you come straight back to this page with Individual access. Already a member? Sign in with your dotzedw.com account.

Open these deals in the deals tracker

What SADC sells abroad across logistics

SADC exports by subsector, 2024, US$. A product can count in two subsectors.

Road freight and corridorsUS$5.3bn+46% on five years earlier
Ports and shippingUS$808m+153% on five years earlier
Air cargo and airportsUS$276m+6% on five years earlier
Rail freightUS$55m+22% on five years earlier
Source: CEPII BACI·dotzedw Insights Centre

Who is moving

Open in the deals tracker

35 deals in the last 12 months across SADC, placed in subsectors by what they say.

Where the logistics opportunity is strongest in SADC

Each sector is sized in three layers: the addressable market, the part today's rails can serve, and the share a new entrant can win now. Every driver is either a sourced indicator or listed openly as a gap, so you can see what the ranking rests on and what it cannot yet see.

Logistics: Freight, warehousing, last-mile delivery and third-party logistics. On the drivers we can measure, South Africa leads SADC with 85 out of 100, ahead of Seychelles (74) and Mauritius (71).

Logistics ranking

Scores run from 0 to 100 by rank within SADC; 100 is the strongest signal. Sort by any layer.

#Country
1South Africa85828093
2Seychelles744973100
3Mauritius71567087

The full logistics ranking for SADC is part of the Individual plan

US$19 a month or US$190 a year. Subscribe on dotzedw.com and you come straight back to this page with Individual access. Already a member? Sign in with your dotzedw.com account.

A signal of relative opportunity, not a market size estimate. 8 measured drivers, 6 gaps not yet scored. Latest values are used, whatever their year.

What drives each layer

Open any measured driver for its definition, source and the full regional picture.

Addressable market

How big the pool of potential customers is.

  • · SADC median $19.8bn
  • · SADC median 42.6%
  • · SADC median 334k
  • · SADC median 66.0%
Not yet measured
  • Road and rail network length · source: National road and rail agencies (the Atlas shows major routes only)

Serviceable market

How much of it today's rails can reach.

  • · SADC median 2.55
  • (proxy for air cargo links) · SADC median 275k
  • · SADC median 33.5%
Not yet measured
  • Freight volumes by mode · source: National statistics offices; SADC transport corridor reports
  • Vehicle ownership · source: OICA vehicles in use; national vehicle registries

Obtainable share

How easy it is to win customers now.

  • (demand from online orders) · SADC median 41.2%
Not yet measured
  • Last-mile delivery cost · source: Courier rate cards (manual survey)
  • Warehousing stock · source: Property agency reports (manual entry)
  • Venture capital in logistics · source: Paid deal feed

Where the opportunities sit

Last-mile deliveryFreight and haulage platformsWarehousing and fulfilmentThird-party logistics aggregators

Track live logistics activity in Deals and Projects. Each gap above closes as analysts add data through the admin or a paid source is switched on.

Sources and method