Performance at the Port of Cape Town has shown a marked improvement over the past two weeks after weeks of disruption caused by persistent high winds.
According to Terry Gale, chairman of the Cape’s Port Liaison Forum (PLF), wind conditions heavily constrained operations over the previous two months but had eased sufficiently to allow a strong recovery in vessel and container handling.
More than 13 000 container moves were recorded in the past week, while the most recent reporting week exceeded 17 000 TEUs.
The forum agreed this was a clear indication of the terminal’s underlying capacity when weather conditions allow.
Despite still experiencing approximately 36 hours of windbound delays during the past week, the port was able to recover quickly.
“On one day alone, 4 205 container moves were achieved,” said Gale.
“There have been no berthing delays reported recently. Vessels are berthing on arrival and shipping lines are also playing a more cooperative role by avoiding delays that previously compounded congestion. Rail operations also showed improvement with 601 rail moves recorded last week.”
The improved performance is particularly significant for fruit exporters, who in recent months were forced to divert volumes via alternative ports such as Ngqura due to reliability concerns at Cape Town.
PLF participants expressed cautious optimism that export flows could now return to Cape Town if the current trajectory was sustained.
