Port of Durban remains ‘pretty fluid’

ALAN PEAT
THE PORT of Durban saw no major snarl-ups in container movement over the relatively quiet festive season, according to transport and shipping line executives. “The Durban container terminal (DCT) was kept pretty fluid,” said Kevin Martin of Freightliner and vice-chairman, of the Durban harbour carriers association. A beneficial point he noted was that there were a lot more road transporters working over the holiday periods than in previous years, and this kept terminal throughput successfully up to speed. Local members of the Association of Shipping Lines (ASL) and the Port Liaison Committee also told FTW that they had no major disasters to report – apart from a few hitches in finding new berths for ships which previously used the Pier 1 container terminal, now closed for six months for a major upgrade. But that shut-down, said one ship’s agency executive, is “short-term pain for long-term gain” – and he expected the end result to bring big benefit to container shipping through the port. “All the capex and design seems to be going in the right direction,” he said. The indications are that, in a couple of years’ time – when the new Pier 1 will be able to offer additional container capacity to supplement the DCT – the Port of Durban will be rated as a class container-handling facility, he added.