The Port of Cape Town seems to be well on track to reach the middle-of-the-month deadline for erasing the backlog created when essential staff members stayed at home as part of Covid-19 avoidance procedures.
Ahead of tomorrow’s meeting with port authorities, the Western Cape Exporters’ Club (WCEC) has released information indicating that delays at the Cape Town Container Terminal (CTCT) are down to a day – if that.
Based on a daily lockdown report issued by Transnet Port Terminals, the club said there were two vessels berthed at the CTCT - the MSC Shannon and the Santa Isabel - with six gangs (teams) of port staffers working the vessels. Respectively they had 200 and 1046 moves left to go at the time Freight News was informed this morning.
Terry Gale, WCEC chairman, added that 11 900 TEUs had been worked at the CTCT last week, indicating that this figure could have been higher had it not been for a mechanical breakdown.
Crane maintenance was currently conducted on two units at a time, leaving other cranes fully operational, he said
As for the multi-purpose terminal (MPT), Gale said team occupancy at the MPT was 100% with 56% berth occupancy over the past week.
Yesterday David McCallum, managing director of DAL Agency, said it was encouraging to see positive news coming out of the port.
“We’re happy to be calling at Cape Town again,” he added in relation to a recent decision by Deutsche Afrika-Linien to bypass the port when the backlog was at its worst, with lines waiting several vessels deep at anchorage.
At the time the port had, on several occasions, been adversely affected by inclement weather.
When Gale recently spoke to Freight News he said that for the time being the SA Weather Service was forecasting clear skies – a prediction that was holding firm in the wake of the recent cold front that pushed 13-metre swells into the port.
“It’s all looking very good for the port and waiting time is certainly a lot less,” McCallum said.
“The proof, however, will be in the pudding.”
