Brutal Transnet Strikes might finally come to an end after a newly announced deal

It has been about three weeks since the Transnet employees took a strike against their employers in an attempt to sway the industry giant to raise the salaries of workers. The unions represent the employees and Transnet have not been able to reach a resolution to the issue thus far which has been costly to the South African economy as well as to Transnet. However, we might be seeing an end to the strikes as on Monday Transnet released a statement stating that they have reached a deal with one of the unions which will soon see a resumption in the functioning of the port and railway transporting system. With this news in mind how is the economy bound to be affected and how can we as traders prepare ourselves to benefit

These strikes have cost the South African economy R1 Billion daily as Transnet is an industry giant which employs a lot of people and contributes considerably to the economy. This slow in production is particularly harmful at the moment as Europe has ramped up its import of energy resources such as coal to prepare for the coming winter. Transnet was set to capitalize on this surge in demand however its transporting cost was significantly raised due to the strikes.

These strikes may be coming to an end according to Transnet. A new three-year employment deal has been reached where employees will receive a 6% increase in payback dating from April 2022 A 5.5 percent increase from the year 2023 and another additional raise of 5.5% for the year. This deal was agreed upon between UNTU, the union with the majority of the employees who are striking, and Transet and is set to take effect with immediate effect

This new deal can mean that the company can resume its functions soon enough. This will also mean that the rand may gain strength over the next few coming weeks. This is where we traders need to step in and take advantage of the strength the rand is about to receive

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Some of the economic indicators such as GDP and so forth do lag and so we have not been able to correctly identify the extent to which the strikes affected the economy. With this in mind, we also have to be careful of the GDP announcement. We are bound to see some volatility in the market during this announcement and we should be expecting a negative result as opposed to a positive one. So be sure to look out for this and profit from the markets when the announcement is made.