The Port of Cape Town says it is making progress addressing congestion after months of complaints from port users.
A combination of equipment breakdown and bad weather has resulted in long delays on both the water and landside. So much so that Transnet Port Terminals chief executive Nosipho Sithole had to step in to address the situation in April.
A strategy to address the congestion was developed and implemented with Sithole saying it would be reassessed in July to determine if progress was being made or not.
According to Terry Gale of the Port Liaison Forum (PLF), there have been improvements but the port remains congested.
“Berthing delays are not as bad as they were and containers are moving,” he told FTW. “We hope that the TPT team can continue to make good on the port turnaround.”
According to a TPT spokesman targets have been put in place for port management ahead of the first assessment of the strategy in July.
“Already truck turnaround times have improved although we are not at our set targets yet,” he said. Also, the berthing of vessels has improved dramatically although weather in the past week led to some delays again. At the time of going to press about four vessels were waiting in the bay to be serviced.
“Over the weekend the port lost 24 hours due to very large swells in the bay that saw us unable to work the waterside. The landside however remained operational throughout,” he said.
Statistics presented to the PLF indicated that the port lost a total of 115 hours in June due largely to underwater swells. A total of 64 000 TEUs were handled. The ship working hour average was 46 and the gross crane hours 25.
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Berthing delays are not as bad as they were and containers are moving. – Terry Gale
