Maputo terminal back at full throttle after series of hiccups

Despite a couple of technical hiccups in the past year, the container terminal at the Port of Maputo in Mozambique is now running up to speed, according to Ricardo Schlechter of DP World, which operates the terminal in partnership with Grindrod. “We went through a period of fundamental change during last year, which imposed several challenges on all involved in the Maputo container terminal,” he told FTW. “Together with investing in new equipment we also went through a major restructuring of the yard layout and developed a new terminal operating system last November. This, in turn, triggered a comprehensive restructuring of our entire business processes and subsequent organisation scheme and labour arrangement.” A visible sign of the improved performance is the terminal now recording an average of over 400 container transactions through the gate each day. “The average of 35 minutes in truck turnaround time (from gate in to gate out) for February,” Schlechter added, “indicates that we will achieve our systematic target of nearly 30 minutes during this month (March).” At the same time, the overall berth moves per hour (bmph) for February improved considerably, from an historical nine moves per hour to an average of nearly 13 mph – a 50% enhancement. “And we are even more pleased,” Schlechter said, “because this figure is highly dependent on various elements not always within our direct control – like vessel operational characteristics, stowage and subsequent sequence planning. We have reached peaks of nearly 25 moves per hour for complete shifts under ideal conditions, which is also our operational systematic target.” There have, however, been some unwanted surprises. Constant breakdowns – which also involved safety issues – saw the terminal management putting the two ship-to-shore (STS) gantry cranes into a refurbishment and modernisation plan in the middle of last year. “Although this work took longer than expected,” Schlechter said, “we are now pleased to announce that both units have been recommissioned and are now back in service.” Another problem was a technical incident involving one of the mobile harbour cranes (MHCs). This is currently being investigated by the manufacturers, and DP World expects to have it repaired and back in service within the next three months. But a clever piece of backup planning has covered the temporary down-time for the MHC, with the terminal having acquired another unit last July to ensure the back-up service during the STS gantry cranes’ refurbishment process. “We still have continuous operation for vessels, with the four cranes that our operational design demands,” said Schlechter. As part of its plans to increase the terminal’s operational capacity, DP World has planned the bidding process for the construction of the Maputo intermodal container depot to start at the end of March – with the depot, under new CEO Frans Visser, intended to become operational before the end of this year. “This facility will be accessible by both rail and road,” said Schlechter, “and will form an integral link with DP World Maputo. This will offer an overall yard capacity able to better handle seasonal volume fluctuations.” While this project is under construction DP World will rent space from the harbour operators, the Maputo Port Development Company (MPDC), to start a temporary empty container yard. “We are aiming at having that functional by May,” said Schlechter.