Processes must be followed, writes Ray Smuts
SHIPPERS WOULD be over the moon if the Port of Cape Town - or any other South African port for that matter - could achieve 200 moves per crane hour but this is no pie in the sky notion, as the Association of Shipping Lines' Peter Odendaal can attest.
It involved a P&ONedlloyd vessel in Singapore earlier this year, admittedly under what Odendaal, describes as extremely favourable conditions, where stack integrity had been followed to the letter.
Speaking in his capacity as chairman of the association's Cape Town branch, Odendaal, commercial manager for P&ONedlloyd in everyday life, was commenting on the necessity for improved productivity and the importance of complying with stack discipline within Cape Town's container terminal.
In FTW's issue of July 14, 2000, Portnet's new port services manager Malcolm Green alluded to companies who remained flexible on stack closure which, he believed, explained why their productivity was lower in terms of per hour crane moves.
Odendaal told FTW in his experience the non-adherence to stack integrity was the biggest single cause affecting productivity within the container terminal.
If the stack is not ready for the ship it will result in poor productivity. We (the Association of Shipping Lines) stand for improved productivity which means the disciplines and processes have to be followed.
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