New year arrivals prevent CT terminal shut-down

RAY SMUTS
THE NEAR simultaneous arrival of several vessels at the Cape Town terminal on New Year’s day prevented the traditional close-down, with five gangs on hand to work the Maersk Constantia, Safmarine Nokwanda and MSC Olga which all arrived on December 31. The daily terminal reports reflect that the vessel Durban Bridge, which arrived on December 31, experienced berthing delays of 37.33 hours – more than four times the usual delay of between six and eight hours. The Limpopo (arrival January 1) was delayed for 30.5 hours, and the Vega Diamond (arrival January 2) 20.5 hours, among others. No berthing delays were experienced on January 4 apart from a one-hour stoppage due to wind. SA Port Operations container terminal planning officer David Davids said freight companies had responded speedily to an SOS from Sapo. “On January 2 we sat with about 1 200 full, uncleared incoming boxes but the response to our call was such that 700 had been removed by the following day, which helped the terminal remain fluid.”