CT terminal gets berth under control

Delays now at a minimum
RAY SMUTS
IT’S NOT unusual these days for the Cape Town Container Terminal to register zero or low berthing delays, this after several horrendous months at the beginning of the year when delays peaked at up to 90 hours on occasion. Business unit manager at the container terminal, Oscar Borchards, has put those grim months of inclement weather, mostly wind, behind him and, clearly pleased with his team’s performance, is looking to further increase productivity targets. “I believe we are performing well. If one looks at where we are now, achieving around 19 or 20 moves per crane per hour, that is wonderful and means we are improving.” Borchards tells FTW the target for 2006 is a constant 20 moves per crane per hour which has not yet been quite achieved, “hovering” at around the 19 to 20 level. He expects 22 moves per crane per hour to be achieved by next year and an upward swing to 25 moves per crane per hour by the start of 2008. David Davids, Sapo’s planning manager at the container terminal, agrees things have been looking up. Referring to the improvement in berthing delays, Davids says: “We are simply working them away. A vessel with about 1 000 moves is in and out of the terminal within 30 hours nowadays.” (He puts maximum delays at eight to nine hours on average.) The terminal has six cranes and six gangs and Davids says it is not unusual for four cranes and four gangs to be working a single vessel, accounting for speedier turnaround. Last week, the terminal handled around 8 500 TEUs and with citrus (and to a lesser extent deciduous) now loading, some 900 FEU reefers are leaving the terminal every week for overseas destinations.