Import TEUs outperform exports by 67% in January

ALAN PEAT
THE SA commercial port system (seven including Mossel Bay) handled a grand total of 17 064 168-tons of cargo in January, according to the latest National Ports Authority (NPA) figures. In the bulk cargo category – which has coal and iron ore in pride of place – this totalled 15 752 502-t, including a very small amount of coastwise and transhipped, Out of this total 11 058 613-t was shipped (exported) – and the two big performers here were Richards Bay, with 8 248 733‑t and Saldanha Bay with 1 795 216‑t. Total bulk landed (imported) was 4 399 051, with Durban the main player on 3 060 834-t. For breakbulk, the grand total (again including small doses coastwise and being transhipped) was 1 311 666-t. On the export side of things, the total was 948 508, with Durban and RB sharing the spoils at respective totals of 393 908-t and 375 468-t. For breakbulk landed the total was 345 006-t, and Durban handled 288 054-t. In the business of containerised traffic, the NPA calculated that the five SA container ports (Richards Bay, Durban, East London, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town) handled a grand total of 272 726 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) – 198 969 full boxes and 73 766 empties. The total number of full deepsea containers shipped (exports) was 50 854-TEUs – with Durban having 32 444 of these. Total TEUs (full deepsea) landed (imports) were 85 152, and Durban was responsible for 53 188. The figures show that import TEUs outperformed exports in numbers by almost 67.5% for the first month of the year. Looking at transhipped boxes, the five ports handled 69 492 TEUs – 59 541 full, and 10 221 empty. Of these, a total of 36 101 were shipped out of the country – 30 907 TEUs full and 5 194 empty. Landed in transit were 33 391 TEUs, with 28 634 full and 5 027 empties. Durban is again the big performing port in transhipment containers, handling its own total of 46 311 (or 66.6%) – with 39 982 full TEUs, and 6 329 empties. Of the full boxes, Durban landed 19 161 and shipped 20 821. In empties it landed 2 844 and shipped 3 485. In the comparatively much smaller, but equally important coastwise traffic, the five ports handled 6 792 boxes in the month of January – 2 745 outgoing, and 4 047 incoming.