THERE ARE still major delays at the Port of Durban container terminal, with weekly-service ships being detained as much as four days behind schedule, according to Alan Rolf, operations manager of MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company) and president of ASL (Association of Shipping Lines).
It has now been a two-week hangover since the introduction of the new Cosmos computer system by Portnet. A serious container location and tracking hiccup at the system's initiation is exacerbating an already congested terminal, Rolf added.
"Whether we had Cosmos or not, we've still had congestion at the terminal for about the last four weeks - with anything up to 11 ships looking for a berth at the terminal," he said.
This already-congested phase was holding up ships for 24-48 hours. "And the bad start to Cosmos only heightened this already existing problem," said Rolf.
Losing three days when you have a weekly service Rolf describes as "a disaster".
And one which he expects to linger on into July as the backlog waits to be cleared.
An indication of the level of the problem was hinted at in the June 17 meeting of the Durban Port Liaison committee - when a Portnet spokesman told the attendees that there were
11 000 containers in the terminal. "That's 3 000 more than they can handle comfortably," said Rolf. "This puts pressure on the whole system - with repercussions all the way along the logistics chain."
But - by June 23 - Rolf began to see light at the end of the tunnel. "Things were beginning to improve slightly," he said, "with
a significant improvement in the road transport side, for example."
Paul Rayner, m.d. of DTB Cartage, and chairman of the Durban harbour carriers' section of SAAFF (SA Association of Freight Forwarders) agreed.
"There were very significant delays of up to six hours for vehicles in the terminal at the initiation of Cosmos," he said. "But that has sorted itself out to a major degree.
"We are still getting some delays of up to an hour - but that's no real problem. When the system gets bedded down we can expect it to get down to about 30 minutes. And that's liveable."
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