IT WILL be “a sad day” for shipping, indeed the whole of South Africa, if regular
power outages are applied at ports along the lines of the mining sector, says
Alan Jones, Safmarine’s outgoing Africa region
executive. “It would be really
detrimental if it became a trend in our ports. Lines already experience some berthing delays and port productivity is not yet at
the levels that everyone would like them to be.
“Regular downtime could impact on port
productivity and therefore on ships. One of the
solutions could therefore be for the lines to restrict the number of ports of
call to limit the impact and to try to sustain
schedule integrity. If it does transpire, importers will have serious problems
getting cargo delivered to plant and exporters will miss out,” says Jones.
Concerns about power cuts in the port of Durban
cannot be sufficientlyunderscored, given that
almost 50% of Safmarine's import and export
volumes move via the port, heavyweight clients
including petrochemicals group Sasol, mining giant BHP Billiton and the fruit
sectors. Commenting on the
multi-billion rand Coega development, still
controversial in the minds of many, Jones believes that as a transhipment
hub it has the potential to generate huge revenues for South Africa in that it
is ideally situated midway
between the Americas, Far East and Asia.
“Safmarine would look at any viable port that
could offer improved efficiency and quicker
turnabout of ships, ultimately the deciding
factor for all shipping lines. “Were efficiency and productivity to come about at Coega, shipowners would automatically be
attracted – even global
players who may not be operating in South Africa.” Further to Safmarine
chairman Eivind Kolding’s
observation during his first official visit to South Africa last November that
Safmarine was performing better financially than
sister liner, Maersk, Jones
says: “We have consistently produced reasonable
profits and will continue to focus on the path of
profitable growth, not just growth.” Safmarine’s
global profits stood at US$83 million last year, up more than a third on the
previous year.
‘Lines could drop calls if outages are applied to ports’
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