Export growth puts pressure on container availability

The buoyant export market from South Africa to the Far East has put a strain on the availability of 20 and 40-foot containers – with congestion at Durban harbour not helping matters, says Captain Richard Brook- Hart, director of Alpha Shipping, agents for Maruba SCA. Since it can cost in the region of US$30 000 a day to run a 2500 teu vessel, such delays do have serious consequences in terms of costs, says Brook-Hart. “Each day lost due to delays at the harbour also needs to be recovered at sea in order to maintain schedule integrity – and when a vessel increases speed the fuel consumption and costs increase as well.” While China and Far East ports have geared up to handle more volumes, South Africa has not adapted quickly enough, in his view. “The old view was to wait for the increase in volume and then expand. We need a mindset change and the ports have realised that they need to gear up before the event not after it. Ultimately the ports should be privatised to create competition – there are plenty of players willing to invest but there are political and union problems which need to be resolved first,” Brook-Hart told FTW. While port delays, the weather and mechanical breakdown are all risks when shipping by sea, these issues can be factored into every trip. The unpredictables such as the global economic slowdown and a fall in commodity prices with its concomitant impact on export volumes have a more serious impact on the bottom line as liner operators need to operate at 90% capacity to be profitable. While developed countries are experiencing an economic crisis, emerging markets are bucking the trend with the Chinese market growing by approximately 9% and South Africa by just over 2%. There will therefore be a continuous growth in trade between the two nations, reflecting these figures. Maruba currently operates two vessels in the six-vessel WAX service sailing between the Far East and Durban fortnightly. The partners are expected to increase the total to 10 vessels shortly to create a weekly service