Experts say much of the stolen cable is fenced to scrap dealers with criminal ties, and that much of it ends up in South Africa, where it is either recycled or, often, loaded into shipping containers for export.
After testing they are picked, washed (bare-rooted), sanitised and certified then packed and sealed into insulated containers for export.
Imports have collapsed so dramatically that there is a shortage of empty containers for exports.
Also in major ports worldwide, several hundred tons of methyl bromide continue to be used annually for the fumigation of containers destined for export, representing a substantial environmental and human health risk [ 17- 19].
Last month, the head of South Africa's largest scrap-metal company was arrested after investigators found 29 tons of telephone and electrical cable and copper scrap -- some of it from a hijacked Zambian truck -- in company containers being readied for export.
In addition, a guideline on radiation measurements for export containers and ships was published by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
There's no way to check whether some of the parts are stolen, so the containers get green lit for export to Asia (usually via Malaysia) or Africa (via South Africa).
The seasonally adjusted number of containers loaded at its ports for export, many with agricultural products and other raw materials, has risen from the lows of earlier this year.But it is one thing for exports to grow (and imports to fall) but another entirely for trade to compensate for the retrenchment of the much larger consumer sector.
This Hong Kong-listed, Mainland-run company packs China's prodigious manufacturing output into containers and places them on ships for export.
"With the export recovery taking hold more strongly, the outlook for export manufacturing, ports and container shipping sectors appears to be brighter, compared to last year," Jing Ulrich, the chairman of China equities and commodities at J.P. Morgan, said in a research note.
Similarly, trucks move empty containers to export customers and drivers wait for loaded containers that will be returned after the conclusion of packing operations.
