Durban congestion hits CT schedules

Congestion at the Port of
Durban is causing havoc
in Cape Town with vessels
increasingly bypassing the
port in an effort to make up
time.
“We have a massive
problem in Cape Town at
present,” said Terry Gale,
chairman of the Exporters’
Club Western Cape (ECWC).
“Delays caused at the Port of
Durban are impacting the
Port of Cape Town where
vessels are either arriving late
or simply bypassing the port.”
Congestion in Durban
has been on the increase
for some time. Last week
FTW reported on trucks
having to wait more than 30
hours to deliver containers
to the export stack at Point
Terminal where only two
cranes were operating –
while at least five vessels
were being worked on the
waterside.
The lack of equipment –
particularly on the landside
of the port – has been cited as
one of the major contributors
to the increased congestion.
With the port under
pressure, vessels are in some
cases waiting up to two
weeks outside Durban to
berth.
Practically that meant the
vessel arriving three weeks
late in Cape Town, said Gale.
“Something has to be
done as the situation cannot
continue,” he told FTW. “If
Durban is congested and
cannot service the vessels,
why are they sitting waiting
to berth there for two weeks?
The question we are asking
is why can they not sail
on to Cape Town which is
not congested, offload the
Durban cargo here and move
it to Johannesburg via rail.
It will still be quicker than
what is currently the case in
Durban.”
According to Mike
Walwyn, chairman of the
Cape’s Port Liaison Forum,
what was of increasing
concern was the decision
by shipping lines to bypass
Cape Town to make up time
lost waiting in Durban. “We
are seeing more and more
cases where containers are
booked onto a vessel, and
shortly after its departure
in the East, we are advised
it will not be calling Cape
Town.”
He said decisions such
as these based on adverse
weather in a port were
understandable, but when
schedules were being
rationalised because of
a single congested port
in the country, it was
concerning.
The guaranteed weekly
direct service between
Cape Town and New
York has been impacted
particularly severely.
According to Gale, due
to rescheduling, vessels
are simply not calling
on a weekly basis. “This
means any exporter who
has guaranteed his US
clients a weekly sailing
is not able to keep to the
commitment.”
Gale described this
service as brilliant in
the past but extremely
unreliable at present.
“And all because of
Durban. That port gets
all the attention and it
is not performing. It is
an untenable situation,”
he told FTW. “We simply
cannot perform and export
if vessels don’t call.”
According
to Maersk
South Africa
trade and
marketing
manager,
Matt Conroy,
there
have been
scheduling
challenges
of late, but
he said all
efforts were
being made to service Cape
Town.
“There is congestion in
Durban and there’s no doubt
it is causing delays,” he said.
“If one is spending seven
days waiting, the time has
to be made up somewhere
so a shipping line might
omit Cape Town or a port
in Asia but it has an impact
somewhere on the schedule.”
He said it was not
only a concern in terms
of scheduling but it
also led to increased
incremental costs. “We
have added a vessel
onto our weekly
service, but more
vessels come with
more costs. An extra vessel
to a weekly sailing schedule
adds another seven days’ delay.
Customers want speed and
faster delivery.”
Conroy said
all efforts were
being made to
ensure reliability
at present. “We
are spending
a lot of time
trying to get
the schedules
as reliable
as possible.
This issue is a
concern and we
are making an effort to find a
solution from our side.”
FTW approached Transnet
for comment on
the issue, but at
the time of going
to press no
response had
been received.
INSERT & CAPTION
If one is spending
seven days waiting,
the time has to be
made up somewhere.
– Matt Conroy