Lines still in the dark over keel limit ruling

In a follow-up on the ship groundings and the keel limit ruling at the Port of Durban (“Industry slams new keel limit ruling” October 10, 2014), the shipping lines profess to still be in the dark on what the next move will be. Transnet National Ports Authority’s (TNPA) knee-jerk reaction to three incidents of ships being grounded in Durban harbour in recent weeks was to immediately increase the necessary keel clearance from 30 centimetres to 60cms for all berths in the harbour. This is a move that has not pleased the industry, as 30cm more keel clearance equals a lot fewer containers aboard their vessels. But the lines’ recommendation that Durban harbour be sounded and then dredged back to the charted depths seems to have been stalled. FTW was told by a senior source in the shipping industry (who has to remain nameless because of the sensitivity of this issue) that little appeared to be happening. “It seems strange to me that an occurrence like this, which would have raised a big stink at almost any other port around the world, could take place – with nothing seeming to happen,” he said. He also complained that when, as part of TNPA’s R2-billion dredger fleet renewal programme, the new 750-cubic-metre grab hopper dredger (GHD), the Italeni, sailed into Durban in mid-August she was almost immediately redeployed on a dredging contract at the Port of Maputo. “It’s all very well TNPA saying that the renewal programme will provide spare dredging capacity for neighbouring ports, and added income for them. But how can they just ignore the depth problem at the Port of Durban?” However, he told FTW, the shipping lines were hoping that TNPA’s silence on the issue might be broken when a meeting between the two takes place next Tuesday (December 2).