Durban's Cosmos upgrade makes smooth entry

AFTER A postponement following a bomb scare in the Durban Container Terminal during early July, the Cosmos computer logistics system at the terminal has undergone a successful upgrade with minimal disruption to cargo handling. Only two vessels waiting to load were delayed for five hours each but a total of 1459 container moves was handled during the manually operated eight-hour upgrade period. The Cosmos system's cutting edge technology allows huge volumes of container traffic to be handled Ð in Durban's case the container terminal has the capacity to handle 1,45 million TEUs a year with state of the art container lifting equipment operated by skilled employees, says Zeph Ndlovu, DCT's business unit manager. This makes it the largest container terminal in both Africa and the southern hemisphere. "We needed to upgrade the system to enhance our ships' rail and space planning ability, as well as other modules of the system," he explained. "Now we can reduce the time needed to plan ships' discharge and reloading, and we can better manage and control the container stacking area, which is a key operational feature of any container terminal." Ndlovu added that DCT could now communicate with clients electronically and the Corebis billing system was able to automatically calculate the cost of container storage and provide a split billing to the lines and other stakeholders relating to charges for restows and shifters. "In addition, all invoices can be sent to clients electronically via EDI. However this process will depend on the successful conclusion of negotiations with clients."