Despite some considerable talk from a large number of shipping industry sources about “the peak season” in sea trade in this year’s pre- Christmas period, Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) stats don’t show any such real boom. The figures for the six main container ports in the SA network – Richards Bay, Durban, East London, Port Elizabeth, Ngqura and Cape Town – show that the top month was August. It saw the ports handling a total of both full and empty containers of 415 978-TEUs, and of 290 779 full boxes – both imports (landed full) and exports (shipped full). That full box total was up on the 265 442-TEUs in June and 259 258-TEUs in July. The “peak” quickly faded with the ports only handling 269 138 full containers in September and dropping back further to 251 438- TEUs in October. But the figures for imports – where the peak season really lies – certainly displayed more of an ongoing boom, although not a particularly exciting one. Imports in June were 138 578-TEUs; July 140 965; August 151 137; September 145 691; and October 146 786. Exports were more erratic, and definitely showed an even bigger drop-off in September and October after again hitting an August peak. The TNPA stats read: June 126 864; July 119 193; August 139 642; September 123 447; and October 104 652. Probably the most heartening thing about the statistics was that they showed a whopping increase over the trade recession of 2009. The top month for both years was August, but the 2010 total of full boxes (imports and exports) of 290 779-TEUs was a healthy 30.8% (68 601-TEUs) up on the 222 178-TEUs of August 2009.
