‘Cape port congestion the worst in 17 years’

TO SUGGEST that South African Port Operations faced an extremely problematic situation over the two week Easter long weekend period is putting it mildly, with five vessels delayed for a cumulative 399 .75 hours due to a combination of adverse factors. David Davids, planning officer at the Cape Town Container Terminal, makes no bones about it; this has been the most “extreme” scenario in his 17 years of service with Sapo. Difficulties first arose about a month ago when severe storms hit Durban, resulting in a number of container ships diverting to Cape Town, thereafter returning to Durban and doubling back to the Mother City port. “This, coupled with wind delays of some 30 hours between April 5 and 6, resulted in heavy vessel bunching, particularly between April 9 and 11.” Delays resulted in holdups for berthing and cranes between April 9 and 11, affecting the DAL Kalahari (delayed 76 hours) the Maersk Itea (87.83 hours) the Panagea Tinou (76 hours) Safmarine Menling (93.92 hours) and the Santa Adriana (66 hours), for a total of 399 .75 hours. Also delayed for the same reason were the Na Xi He (38.17 hours) and MOL Cullinan (46.75 hours) on April 9 and 10 respectively. Expected in Cape Town between April 12 and 19 were 19 vessels for a total of 6 158 import containers and 5 327 export containers.