Alan Peat
THE DURBAN container terminal is no longer considered a cheap storage spot for importers and average dwell time has been reduced drastically in the past year.
Noting this terminal misuse in late 1999, when immediate post-COSMOS congestion was also reaching a critical stage, the port authorities reported container volumes reaching the 12 000 mark, some
4 000 containers more than the terminal capacity.
And a lot of this was importers trading on Portnet's low storage rates of the time - with some boxes waiting weeks, not days, for uplift.
So the harbour masters slapped on a higher initial daily storage charge and really penalised the long stayers by imposing a R250-a-day charge after five days.
And, said Portnet's John Hyde happily, the average dwell time has fallen from the over six days of the problem period to a current three days.
There's absolutely no overstacking in this staging area at all now.
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