In South Africa there's an abundance of container rail capacity but insufficient bulk rail capacity.
Due to the fact that South Africa exports large amounts of mineral products but little consumable goods, container rail cannot be used for loose bulk cargo as the loading process becomes complicated. Product needs to be stuffed into containers at warehouses and transferred onto rail for container exports, not loose bulk.
Sail initially chopped the top off a standard 20ft container as an alternative to using a bulk rail wagon. The product was loaded from the top using a front-end loader. Due to it's high density, the product only reached half of the container height.
Sail then redesigned the 20ft open top by cutting it into half of its original height. This enabled the double stacking of empties whilst repositioning for the return leg. The saving as a result of this innovation has been substantial!
Milan Lalloo September 2013