Delays at Durban Pier 1 have prompted a change to the South African port rotation of the ONE Resilience with some Cape Town exports potentially moving to the following vessel.
In an October 20 customer advisory, Maersk said the vessel, operating voyages 638S/642N on the SAECS service, will change rotation to protect its onward schedule.
The revised rotation is Coega-Cape Town-Durban-London. The vessel remains scheduled to call at Durban on November 4.
Maersk said imports will be delivered into Cape Town during weeks 43 and 44 with a provisional one-day export stack. If time does not permit loading, exports will have to move to the following vessel.
The schedule adjustment comes as Crickmay’s latest RSA Corridor Pulse Report records sustained pressure on vessel turnaround times at Durban.
For the reporting period October 12-18, average vessel port call duration reached eight days and eight hours. The report states that Durban’s average port calls remained above seven days for seven consecutive weeks.
Average vessel waiting time was approximately four days while time alongside averaged approximately four days and eight hours. Both increased compared with the previous week.
Port call duration includes the period from arrival at anchorage to departure from the berth. The report’s figures cover Durban’s broader port performance. Maersk’s advisory specifically attributes the rotation change to delays at Pier 1.
Road transit times on the Johannesburg-Durban corridor were comparatively stable. The reported average road transit measure increased by 19 minutes to 14 hours while average heavy vehicle dwell time in the Durban port precinct rose by nine minutes to two hours and 16 minutes.
The report classifies the corridor as “at risk”, pointing to the increase in vessel anchorage and berth times despite relatively steady road transit times.
