April 3 delay was 61-hours
Alan Peat
CONGESTION HAS now hit Cape Town, according to Colin Schultz, distribution manager for the major shipper, SANS Fibres, and a founder member of the Cape's Port Liaison Forum (PLF).
According to Portnet-released statistics, the daily average delay to ships has rocketed upward in the last few weeks.
On March 18, the daily average was 24-hours, and on March 26 20-hrs. But from then on, it has risen rapidly. From 23-hrs on March 28, to 32-hrs on April 1, to a shocking 61-hrs on April 3, and only a slightly less shocking 51-hrs on April 8.
"And a lot of container vessel arrivals are due after that last date," Schultz
told FTW.
It's not new. Schultz has already warned FTW that congestion was on the horizon (See "CT fears congestion surcharge bogey" February 22, 2002).
This because the port was even then operating close to capacity.
"The harbour here normally handles about 30 000 containers a month," said Schultz at that time. "But they've been operating at about 37 000 containers recently and getting close to their 40 000 unit capacity limit."
This was proven by the recently released Portnet figures for the year 2001. Cape Town handled 471 112 TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) last year. An impressive (but worrying) increase of 104 117 TEUs (+ 28.37%) on 2000.
This compared with SA's "all ports" rise of 6.22% - on a par with the world norm for 2001.
"We're overcapacity," said Schultz. This, he added, is caused by a number of factors.
"Vessel bunching doesn't help," Schultz said. "A lot of operators are now coming through Cape Town instead of Durban; we obviously get hiccups when vessels don't uplift all their cargo; and the equipment leaves something to be desired."
"Not only this, but cargo volumes have also gone up; fruit has been switching from bulk to containers; the Easter weekend didn't help at all; and......WIND!"
However, said Schultz, it's not a time for finger pointing and laying blame - rather a search for solutions. The PLF-created work group is trying to come up with these in the short-term, he said.
Durban congestion, meantime, is on the wane although shipping line executives warn that this is the traditional quiet patch in the year.
