Ray Smuts
MITSUI O.S.K. Lines' Dave Giraudeau gets straight to the point as he reflects
on the recent crippling national ports strike and its disastrous aftermath... "how many swear words do you want?"
As the major shipping lines remain tight-lipped from a media perspective - what one spokesman describes as a "sensitive" period - Giraudeau is not alone in his frustration at this untenable situation which can only further tarnish the country's trading reputation. "The backlog is going to take a very long time to clear up, not only in Durban."
Lines have
conservatively lost about R50 million
Whereas Safmarine was one of the lines that bore the brunt in Cape Town during the first week of the strike with two container ships SA Sederberg and Safmarine Vaal delayed for many hours, it was MOL's turn to suffer a similar fate at the weekend.
MOL Niger arrived in Cape Town at 2.19 a.m. on December 7 and was expected to berth some seven hours later. Instead, she only entered the container terminal at 19:45 the following day, 34 hours late. (She sailed at 17:00 on Sunday)
Amid reports of a number of ships bypassing South African ports due to the strike and others departing without their full cargoes, the Container Liner Operators Forum's Dave Rennie asserts shipping lines have conservatively lost about R50 million.
The consequence of the strike, says Rennie, is that shipping lines are going to have to recoup their losses and they will be claiming against South African Port Operations in the first instance while alternatively imposing congestion surcharges on cargoes handled at South African ports.
