Average ship delay no worse than usual
ALAN PEAT
THE EASTER weekend caused little extra delay at the Port of Durban, according to shipping line executives.
According to Dave Rennie, CE of United Africa Container Line (UACL) and chairman of the Container Liner Operators Forum (Clof), there were certain ships delayed for rather lengthier periods than expected, but nothing extraordinary.
And, he told FTW, the Easter logjam was virtually cleared by the Tuesday following the holiday weekend - with the port working both the weekend (albeit with reduced staff numbers) and on the April 14 voting day.
Barry New, MD of P&O Nedlloyd, agreed.
“There was a bit of slippage,” he said, “but nothing serious.”
The line’s monitoring of the Durban congestion revealed an average ship delay of about
23 hours. But that, said New,
was about what it has been running at in recent times, even having
gone as high as 40 hrs in the preceding month.
According to Rennie, the overall productivity at the Port of Durban
has improved since this time last year - with the gantry cranes running at an average of 18 container moves per hour.
The port actually did quite well over the holiday, he added, with two cranes down - one for rail laying and one for servicing.
This lack of cranes remains an ongoing potential problem until the three new units are delivered later this year - but SA Port Operations (Sapo) are keeping their heads above water, said Rennie.
