Concerns are mounting that Lüderitz and its socio-economic wellbeing will suffer after the recent announcement that Ocean Africa Container Lines (OACL) will be terminating its ocean freight feeder service connecting the port with export ports to the north and south.
What’s more, container line Maersk, which used to call at Lüderitz, seems to have no intentions to fill the gap with sailings to Namibia’s southernmost port.
In a letter sent to the logistics industry and which was shared with Freight News, the Danish-run carrier said: “For the foreseeable future, the alternative we can offer is a landside truck solution up to Walvis Bay from where we can connect the cargo onto our FW6 service to Europe/Middle East and our FW3 service to the Far East.”
Willie Prosser, who used to head up the Container Lines Operators’ Forum and now chairs the Walvis Bay Port Users’ Association, said he could not understand the rationale behind Maersk’s decision.
He said from what was known, the carrier had, for at least the last two years, been looking into a joint venture (JV) that would offer an alternative feeder service, but that the JV had not been approved by the respective competition commissions of South Africa and Namibia.
However, he cannot understand why Maersk “can’t come up with a reasonable plan”.
Speaking in his personal capacity as a businessman with commercial interests in both Lüderitz and Walvis Bay, Prosser said the road infrastructure could not handle the number of trucks necessitated by Maersk’s decision.
The B4 from Keetmanshoop past Aus to Lüderitz is already packed with trucks carrying manganese from the Northern Cape in South Africa.
On a recent trip from Lüderitz to Walvis, Prosser said he had counted 26 trucks heading to the port every 20 minutes.
The alternative C14 road directly north is also not a viable option as it’s not meant to carry such heavy loads, and will probably be turned down by authorities because of the environmentally sensitive area through which it runs.
Moreover, said Prosser, it didn’t make economic sense.
Without a feeder service linking up with Lüderitz, Walvis would have to send trucks with empty reefer boxes to Lüderitz to load fish, the town’s biggest export commodity.
“It can be done, trucks can do two trips in a week between the two ports, but exporters won’t be able to load 28 tonnes in a container any more. Seven tonnes have to be set aside for the generator set and fuel to run it, so they can only load 21 tonnes.
“If you’re not fully optimising your refrigeration capacity and it drives down your tonnage, the question is whether it’s really worth it.”
In addition, without feeder services calling at the port, related services such as stevedoring, logistics, and the container depot – “the whole port”, according to Prosser – will be hammered.
For a well-seasoned line such as Maersk, it didn’t make sense that they hadn’t come up with a shipping solution for Lüderitz, Prosser said.
As for OACL, it said that it simply could not sustain its service between Durban and Walvis.
“The exorbitant ship charter hire rates, coupled with the extremely high marine fuel cost, makes our service unaffordable.
“Over the past year charter hire rates for ships have increased by more than 400%. The charter rate for the type of ship we deploy has increased from $8 000 per day to $40 000 per day, and the price of marine fuel has increased to above $1 000 per ton.”
Maersk said from what was known, the last feeder vessel would call at Lüderitz on April 23.
“If you’re not fully optimizing your refrigeration capacity and it drives down your tonnage, the question is whether it’s really worth it.”
In addition, without feeder services calling at the port, related services such as stevedoring, logistics, and the container depot – “the whole port”, according to Prosser – will be hammered hard.
For a well-seasoned line such as Maersk, it doesn’t make sense that they haven’t come up with a shipping solution for Lüderitz, Prosser said.
As for OACL, it said that it simply cannot sustain its service between Durban and Walvis.
“The exorbitant ship charter hire rates coupled with the extremely high marine fuel cost makes our service unaffordable.
“Over the past year charter hire rates for ships have increased by more than 400%, the charter rate for the type of ship we deploy has increased from $8 000 per day to $40,000 per day, the price of marine fuel has increased to above USD 1,000 per ton.”
Maersk said from what is known, the last feeder vessel will call at Lüderitz on April 23.
