AS CONGESTION at South Africa’s ports continues to seriously hamper the country’s economic development, port authorities should stop treating people like equipment and start educating manpower in terms of consequences, says Roland Naidoo.
The managing director of inland haulage specialist Rail Road Africa echoes the sentiments of the broader shipping community whose principal concern is Durban.
“We are tired of hearing why certain things don’t get done, but no one in authority is saying how to do it to ensure the situation is improved,” says Naidoo. “Productivity will improve when the workers at the root of the problem are advised of what the future holds if they improve their standard of operation.
“In Durban the harbour is open seven days a week, but crane drivers are restricted to union governed hours with the result that the movement of containers is far too slow.
“Customers want their boxes. The authorities must realise that as the prime factor of importance, and the container depot must start evaluating their working hours with a view to more flexibility.”
Naidoo’s comments are backed up by Maersk South Africa managing director Peter Ehrenreich who says the problem is clearly the poor productivity of the cranes and getting the containers in and out of the harbour. He cites Durban as the worst example, where on occasion only eight containers have been handled by one crane in an hour. Figures produced by Portnet have shown that the average handled is 15 containers an hour.
“This is not fair on ship or cargo owners,” he says. “Somebody should ask Portnet why they are satisfied with 15 containers an hour. This low productivity has a huge effect on business and the economy. The solution is not more ports or projects like Coega but rather to identify the root cause of the delays and rectify the situation.”
Ehrenreich quotes the example of Japan where up to 47 containers are handled by a single crane every hour. The aim, he says, should be to handle at least 25 containers per crane every hour.
Durban’s container terminal manager Zeph Ndhlovu has a different view on the subject. Shipping lines, he says, are the problem as many of them fail to submit accurate information of ship arrivals to allow for proper planning. This lack of data, coupled with the ageing fleet of straddle carriers, anti-privatisation stayaways and strong winds in August which forced a full-day shut down in the terminal, are the problems.
“Container ships continue to arrive in droves and if you look back at July we had a record of more than 84 000 container handling moves.”
Ndhlovu says the matter of working hours is being addressed. Portnet has extended shifts from eight to 12 hours since September 25, while turnaround times for vessels have been whittled down from 40 hours to 18 and are improving.
Meanwhile Nolene Lossau of the SA Shippers Council says the poor productivity is not limited to cranes and the container terminal but includes break bulk. One problem, she says, is that the Council has been told the crane operators cannot be paid overtime or bonuses because of labour legislation.
Port users lose patience with continued poor productivity
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