Joint committee is addressing congestion issues

All planning in SAPO container terminals could unfortunately not have predicted the huge increase in container volumes over the last few months. The huge decline in the Rand value has made South Africa (especially Cape Town) very attractive for transhipment of containers destined for West Africa. SAPO has, jointly with customers, formed a Cape Town based Port Congestion Committee. The aim of this committee is to plan for alternative options to resolve capacity issues when congestion is expected. We have also developed strategies that will be put into place for these periods. The rail differentiation between Port Elizabeth and Gauteng has already been equalised. Further negotiations for rail concession can be done directly with Spoornet. It must also be mentioned that Spoornet manages the terms-of-trade for City Deep and it runs independently from the container terminals of SAPO.