Inclement weather along South Africa’s coast pushed container throughput down to its lowest levels in weeks, the latest Cargo Movement Update compiled by the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff) and Business Unity SA (Busa) has found.
For the week ending April 12, commercial ports handled an average of 6 180 containers per day, significantly down from the 8 061 containers processed the previous week.
To put it in perspective, throughput had decreased from more than 8 800 to less than 7 200 week-on-week (w-o-w), towards the end of March, heralding a new low for container handling and underscoring the latest reported w-o-w depressed figures of 6 180.
“Terrible weather, equipment breakdowns, and a system failure dominated port operations,” Saaff and Busa said.
At the Port of Cape Town, nature’s merciless effect was particularly impactful, as more than 60 operational hours were lost.
“In contrast, equipment breakdowns, a system failure, and adverse weather constituted the majority of delays in Durban.”
Elsewhere, stormy conditions also lashed the ports of East London and Port Elizabeth (Gqberha), where operations were characterised by strong winds, rain and vessel ranging.
At the Port of Richards Bay about 30 operational hours were lost due to high swells and poor weather conditions.
On the rail freight side, minimal reports were received for the same week ending April 12.
According to information from Transnet Freight Rail, there were no indications of any major incidents on the Container Corridor (ConCor) line from the Port of Durban to Gauteng.
Current data shows, though, that year-on-year levels on the ConCor line are down 9%, whilst domestic cargo is up 17%.
