Ports seek quick-fix with leased cranes

‘It’s going to get worse’ - Sarno Dave Marsh TENDERS ARE due to be awarded shortly for the lease of three second-hand cranes as a quick-fix solution to the current crisis at the Port of Durban. The cranes are expected to be delivered in the first quarter of next year. Tenders for the purchase of three new cranes are awaiting Transnet approval. Once the order is placed these will take 18 months to be delivered. “For the past five or six years shipping lines have been calling for more cranes in Durban,” Mediterranean Shipping Company chairman Captain Salvatore Sarno told FTW. “And although the port authorities are in full agreement about the necessity of these cranes, they have never materialised because the decision has been blocked at a higher level by persons unknown.” Now Sarno believes the situation is likely to get considerably worse as traffic peaks into the second half of June at a time when the port is already unable to cope and labour is threatening strike action In Cape Town the bad weather season is about to begin which will further complicate the issue. Productivity is not the problem, in Sarno’s view. “The container handling rates per crane are no different today than they were in the mid 80s when the equipment was almost new. To page 19 From Page 1 “The problem is simply a shortage of cranes.” He believes that three cranes in Durban would solve congestion problems for four years or more. “A ship in Durban carrying 2 500 teus for on- and offloading would have to spend three days in the port if only two cranes were used. “If they could put on four cranes the time would be halved. “There is no need for new berths or piers, just the cranes that the shipping lines and port authorities have been asking for for the past five or six years. “It’s a fallacy that privatisation will provide an immediate solution to congestion. Without cranes a private operator cannot supply a magic solution.” According to Sarno the Container Liner Operators Forum (Clof) was willing to put up money for container cranes and charge normal interest rates which could be deducted from port charges, but the offer was turned down. “That’s how keen the shipping lines have been to solve the problem. “The congestion surcharge has made the lines look like the bad guys, but in fact we are losing a fortune.” Excluding delays of less than a day, in the last six months MSC -has lost 180 days to congestion, says Sarno. “Maintaining a weekly service is impossible and ports are being bypassed and vessels chartered in as a consequence.” He believes that the speedy action by the port authorities to find a quick fix solution to the crane crisis is largely a response to the recent imposition by the lines of a $100 per TEU congestion surcharge at the country’s congested ports. “It clearly brought the situation to a head.”