Durban shippers brace for port capacity squeeze

The Durban container terminal (DCT) is to lose one berth soon after the end of this month, as new rail lines are laid to accommodate the new shipto- shore cranes that are due to be installed, according to Kevin Martin, chairman of the Durban Harbour Carriers’ Association (DHCA). And that is liable to be a serious blow to the DCT’s ship handling schedule, according to a line executive. “One berth does make a big difference,” he told FTW. “And adding to the problem is that it is not a short-term closure, but long-term, as the crane installation will be followed by berth deepening.” Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) does have contingency plans, but these are not too acceptable to the lines, added our shipping line contact. “One plan is to move own-gear container ships to the Point,” he said. “But this will slow down offloading/loading of the vessels, and will cost us the inconvenience of more time in port. They are also talking about diverting vessels to the Port of Ngqura. But it’s not easy to change ships’ schedules like this, never mind the lengthy and costly landside movement of boxes to and from the port.” Martin has been led to understand that setting the rails back by 10 metres from the old lines is because the new cranes straddle 24 containers across, but the 10-m difference cuts them back to 18. “The engineers are perturbed about the strength of the quay to work 24 across,” he told FTW. “But, once the berth is deepened and strengthened, then they’ll move them back out to full reach.” After the berth deepening, the Port of Durban will be in a position to accommodate the so-called new generation of large container vessels, and Transnet indicated that this would mean container vessels with a capacity of up to 9 200 TEUs would be able to call.