Despite several improvements in the country’s maritime sector, capacity continued to hinder the operations of container shipping lines, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) director Glenn Delve told FTW. He made specific mention of the current issues regarding capacity and congestion at the Port of Durban.
“MSC engages at a high level with all ports on a daily basis in order to overcome these capacity and congestion problems,” he said. “As a progressive company, we are always looking for new ideas to try to assist ports such as Durban with relieving capacity issues by employing larger vessels on some routes, like India and Europe, or by rerouting some of our vessels to Ngqura or the Port of Cape Town.”
Delve pointed out that this was however not an ideal situation as the bypassing of certain ports would affect ports’ revenue and therefore their ability to provide services to port users.
“As the largest container line operator and biggest port user in South Africa, MSC generates increased revenues for the country’s maritime sector through its ports due to the large volumes we handle,” he said.
Congestion at the Port of Durban has resulted in some vessels having to wait up to two weeks outside Durban in order to berth.
Transnet National Ports Authority previously announced further expansion plans at the port, which would see terminal capacity increasing to around 5.2 million TEUs per year, in an effort to ease congestion.
However, questions have already been raised as to how the authority will address congestion outside the port as a result of the added capacity.
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MSC engages at a high level with all ports on a daily basis to overcome capacity and congestion problems. – Glenn Delve
