Crane breakdown aggravates CT berthing delays

RAY SMUTS VESSEL BUNCHING reared its ugly head at the Cape Town Container Terminal during the early part of last week, a situation exacerbated by a major crane breakdown causing berthing delays of more than 70 hours in one instance. “It was quite tight on Monday and Tuesday with a lot of vessels coming in at the same time, but by Friday berthing delays were down to only 2,4 hours with three vessels at the berth,” said business unit manager Oscar Borchards as the Mother City prepared itself for a cold and wet weekend. Derek Goetze, Sapo’s terminal planning manager, told FTW that aside from vessel bunching a “very serious, major breakdown” of one of the cranes occurred on Saturday, June 12, on top of which a second crane was out of commission for an entire day. Of the six gantry cranes at the container terminal, four are around 26 years old and the remaining two eight years old. “It is unfortunate,” said Goetze, “that Cape Town being a weekend port will always have these delays but you will find they get worked away to nothing by Tuesday or Wednesday.” The container ship Saf Kei arrived at anchorage at 07:30 on June 13 and was due to start working at 14h00 on June 16, but her berthing delay came in at 78 hours. Berthing delays to the Terrabona and MOL Wisdom were 51 hours and 45 hours respectively. Borchards has budgeted for two new gantry cranes at a combined cost of R80 million this financial year. If approved by the Transnet board, they could be in place by 2006 at the earliest.