Ray Smuts AS THE sun rose over Table Bay on Sunday morning Cape Town's container terminal was full yet again with five vessels awaiting berths. Peter Odendaal, Southern Africa operations manager for P&O Nedlloyd, furnished FTW with a list of delayed vessels while adding: "Portnet has run out of credibility as far as the lines are concerned. They talk a lot but do very little." As the newly-formed port congestion committee - an endeavour between the major lines and newly-constituted Cape Regional Chamber of Commerce - seeks solutions to what has become a mammoth problem, Odendaal confirms that the major problems in the container terminal relate to poor productivity and inadequate equipment. "For the last ten years Portnet has been warned about inadequate manpower and has overlooked it while some equipment is out of order." FTW learnt last week that SA Port Operations was rectifying the manpower shortage by taking on 50 extra people qualified to drive both cranes and straddle carriers, and that representations had been made for new equipment. The container terminal was full on Sunday morning (April 21), with five cranes working four ships, a fifth crane being out of order. Delays last week included: l P&O Nedlloyd Kowie - 12 hours on April 18 l SA Sederberg - 16 hours on April 18 l P&O Luanda - 10 hours on April 19 l MOL Paraguay - 10 hours on April 19 l P&0 Nedlloyd City of Cape Town - 24 hours late due to fog l P&O Nedlloyd Bantam - Arrived 1400H on April 21 but was only due to berth at 2 a.m. on Tuesday, April 23 Cape Town"s harbourmaster Eddie Bremner said the port was very busy and that marine services was under pressure as many of the visiting ships were calling for bunkers. "It"s all action but there have been no delays on our side. We just deliver a service around the clock."
