Durban congestion raises surcharge fears

ALAN PEAT
WHILE STILL not far into this year’s pre-Christmas rush of cargo, the Port of Durban is already beginning to jam up – and again this year there are fears of serious congestion. According to shipping line and agency executives approached by FTW, even ships with approved berthing windows are being kept waiting for anything up to 48 hours or more before being able to berth. And, at an approximate cost of US$36 000
(R270 000) a day for a ship of about 3 000-TEU capacity, according to a spokesman for a ship's agency, these sort of delays are hacking chunks off shipowners’ bottom lines. SA Port Operations (Sapo) has desperately been trying to shift ships to all the other facilities at the port to take the strain off the Durban Container Terminal (DCT). “But,” said one port user, “this plan, although good in theory, is not proving so good in practice. New paperwork for the alternative berth has to be generated, but is getting fouled-up in the flow from one Sapo section to the other, and is therefore just adding to the delays.” The Sapo statistics for October 18 tell the other bad news. A total of 12 ships were having lengthy waits at the outside anchorage, it said, three temporarily at the multi-purpose terminal (MPT) waiting to berth at the DCT, with two more due to arrive. The average delay for the 12 ships stuck outside was 3.75-days (90-hours) – but the worst were two ships with six-day waits and four with four days. It’s already not looking pretty, Sapo admits, adding that the Durban management was seeking labour assistance from other coastal ports “to maximise crane output in order to ease congestion”. It’s also worth remembering that the last time the port got badly jammed up in 2003-04, the lines demanded that Durban record a moving average of no more than 16-hours delay for 28 consecutive days before they would lift the universally imposed port congestion surcharge of US$100 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU). And it has got so bad that the major shipping line, Maersk, has apparently already been talking about a US$50 per TEU surcharge. Indeed, FTW has heard from inside sources that certain voices in the Container Liner Operators' Forum (Clof) have been mumbling about a possible surcharge. But, despite a number of telephonic efforts, we have been unable to get an “official” word on the issue. The rumoured Maersk proposal, meantime, has met with sharp reactions in the shipping industry, with suggestions that the issue could be slapped before the Competition Commission as contravening SA competition legislation. The SA Shippers' Council (SASC) had no comment to make on this, but any surcharge imposed on cargo owners would certainly meet with an adverse reaction from members, according to SASC executive director, LM Pelser. “”Should a surcharge be imposed it will have a detrimental effect on the cargo owners’ competitiveness in the international marketplace,” he told FTW. And, he asked, why should they be hit when the problem really lies with Sapo, who are responsible for the efficient operation of the ports in SA? “Why should it be slapped on cargo owners when they have absolutely nothing to do with the running of the port?”