Better planning gets new SAECS vessels into rhythm

ALAN PEAT THE NEW “Big White” fleet of the SA-Europe Container Service’s (SAECS) core service has now been scheduled so that there is no overlap of these larger container capacity ships at SA ports. With capacities ranging between 3 700 and 4 900 TEUs, there is a danger that these ships could overload a port’s container terminal berths if care is not taken in spacing calls adequately. But, after praise from SA Port Operations (Sapo) for the SAECS scheduling helping to reduce waiting time at the port of Cape Town from 80-hours to 18-hrs (FTW April 1, 2005), what of Durban, where congestion is a perpetual problem? “The scheduling is now the latest version,” said Maersk Sealand MD Flemming Dalgaard, “and is also working well in Durban – which, remember, also has 16 cranes as opposed to Cape Town’s six. “There is no overlap of the big vessels.” Another member line of the SAECS consortium agreed. “The scheduling has moved from the old, with seven ships and a 49-day round voyage,” a source told FTW, “and is now the new, with six vessels and a 42-day round voyage timing to maintain the weekly service.” The new service will obviously not call in the same slots at each port, he added, and has been designed to make sure that vessels do not arrive one on top of another.