The Port of Cape Town on Friday morning confirmed that “vessel turnaround times may be longer” and “customer satisfaction may be compromised” as it recovers from ship-to-shore cranes (STS) breaking down.
In an “STS status update” sent out to industry, Transnet managing executive for the Western Cape region, Oscar Borchards, said six cranes were currently available while three were being repaired.
He said the state-owned logistics company’s OEM, Liebherr, “is working tirelessly to address the issue”.
He emphasised that one of them was expected to be back in operation by close of business on August 22.
It’s not clear whether this did indeed materialise.
“The eighth crane is expected to be back in operation by Saturday, August 24. Once again, we offer our sincere apologies for the inconvenienced caused.
“We are working very hard to bring operations back to normal.”
Borchards explained that the port’s seven-gang operations required that the port’s operators always had seven cranes available.
With three vessels being worked when the update was sent out on August 22, Borchards said the port’s performance “will be negatively impacted”.
The update can also be read in the context of remarks made by certain private-sector stakeholders bemoaning the port’s perceived loss of robust resilience.
The same day the update was sent out, it was reported that the port was now taking longer to recover from weather-related challenges, for which Table Bay is notorious (*).
But Borchards states in the update: “In September, Cape Town Container Terminal (CTCT) will kick off its reliability programme on all nine available cranes.
“The cranes will be released through a staggered approach, with one crane at a time out for two weeks.
“CTCT has started receiving some of the parts required for improved reliability in time for the programme kick-off.
“We will keep all our stakeholders and customers updated on the developments as they become available.”
* Read this: "Port of Cape Town – it’s all in a day’s work (weather permitting)"
