WHEN IT comes to port upgrades, slow implementation is clearly a problem South Africa shares with several global partners. A senior CMA CGM executive has warned of worsening port and inland transport congestion to come in Europe and the US because of relatively slow decision-making on and execution of new investment projects, according to a report by Lloyd’s List in London. Quoting Nicholas Sartini, head of Asia-Europe services at CMA CGM, the report points out that the unprecedented growth in Chinese exports has caught importing countries by surprise, and terminal capacity has not matched demand. Drawing a comparison with China’s expansion programme, Sartini noted that the Port 2000 container extension at Le Havre had taken six years to bring into service, compared with 1 200 days for the Yangshan terminal at the port of Shanghai.
