More power points imminent
Alan Peat
FEARS OF congestion at the reefer container park at the Durban harbour terminal have been averted with last-minute alert flashes going out from Portnet to SAAFF (SA Association of Freight Forwarders) appealing for expeditious movement of reefer boxes.
The signal from the harbour authorities' Linda Muller indicated that the 528 unit reefer facility was almost 75% full, and four big container vessels - two from MSC, and one each from Maersk and DAL - were due in at the start of August.
There were heavy losses for perishable exporters the last time the reefer park was overloaded - both as a result of fruit products going off, and overseas markets being missed. At that time, one of the main reasons for the congestion was reefer operators using the park as a cheap storage area because of the low rates.
Was it still proving to be a bargain cold storage point, despite the rates having been raised, FTW asked Chris Mjadu, marketing manager at the Durban terminal.
No, he said thankfully, that was not the reason now.
Dwell time, said Mjadu, is now four days on average. A figure we find acceptable.
The reason for the looming congestion was three-fold, he added. We got a lot of new demand when Maersk moved from the combi-terminal to the main terminal, giving a 52% increase in reefer traffic.
Secondly, there is also a lot of fruit going from
palletised transport into reefers.
The figures for all this, added Muller, showed as a 65.7% growth in reefer volumes passing through the terminal in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year.
Now, Mjadu told FTW, add those two growth areas to the third factor - reefer capacity at the terminal - and you come up with capacity shortfall.
But, he added, contingency plans were put into place, with Portnet out looking for power packs from an outside supplier - enough to supply 70 extra power points as an interim solution.
As the longer term answer, Mjadu said, we have motivated for funds to head office, and plan to increase the power points by 240 giving a new total capacity of 768 units.
And this, Muller assured FTW, is intended to be completed before the start of the next fruit season in September/October.
That possible jam-up at the beginning of the month?
All four of the vessels arrived, said Muller. It was a push. But, let's put it this way, we coped.
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