Massive berthing delays block supply chain

A MAJOR challenge for shipowners in the Africa
trade is berth congestion throughout the southern
sub-continent’s port network, according to Andrew
Thomas, CEO of Ocean Africa Container Lines
(OACL) – a joint-venture between Safmarine and the
Grindrod group.
“On average we lose 20% of our voyage days,”
he told FTW, “which means one or two of the eight
vessels deployed at any one time sits idle while at
anchorage at one of the ports.
“This blocks the supply chain and causes a huge
frustration for clients whose cargoes are subsequently
delayed. The cost of these delays equates to tens of
millions of rands annually to us.”
Angola is a prime example of this port congestion.
While import market demand has grown significantly
over the past year, the volumes shipped into the
main port of Luanda have only increased by around
10%.
“This differential can be attributable to constraints
in the supply chain,” said Thomas, “where ships are
waiting up to 30-days to berth. We estimate there
is currently over 100 000-tonnes of cargo destined
for Luanda sitting in various ports in the region and
beyond.”
Adding to the logistics costs in Angola is the
fact that there are no containerised exports from
the country. “The shipping of empty containers out
of Angola attracts significant repositioning costs,”
Thomas said, “which are ultimately borne by the
importers.”
To beat the problem, OACL deploys eight, modern,
purpose-built container ships on the Southern African
coast on a port circuit from Nacala in Mozambique
to Luanda in Angola – and offers services in all major
ports in SA, Mozambique, Namibia and Angola.
Its business falls into three market segments.
OACL is a “common feeder operator” – carrying
containers for other shipping lines between the
various hub ports and out ports where the mainline
operators offer cargo acceptance but do not send
vessels of their own.
“Utilising our own fleet of containers we also offer
cargo acceptance to shippers and consignees trading
within our port range.
“We also carry domestic cargo between SA ports
as part of our supply chain solutions for various
major SA companies.”
One of the major commodity groups in this
business sector is sugar – with OACL offering
complete transport, warehousing and distribution
services to both Illovo Sugar and Tongaat Huletts
Sugar.
“If you take a spoon of sugar in your coffee
anywhere in Cape Town, East London or Port
Elizabeth,” said Thomas, “it’s very likely that sugar will
have spent some time on an OACL vessel between
the sugar mill and your cup.”
As part of its development, the line’s board
has just approved plans to upgrade the service
– acquiring a new fleet of containers purpose-built
for the region, and designed to support the growing
market.
The line is also in a fleet replacement programme
– continually deploying larger vessels of 1 100-teu
capacity, and replacing the smaller 600-teu ships.