More high-level
meetings due in March, writes Alan Peat
THE SHIPPING consortium, SAECS (SA Europe Container Service), is no nearer to getting compensation from Portnet for what the lines claim were undue costs thrust upon them by Portnet inefficiency.
This stemmed from serious delays in loading the SAECS vessel, the Dal Kalahari, in Durban over the festive season. To keep her up-to schedule for her other port calls, and to save abandoning the 650 boxes still to be loaded, the SAECS management sent her on her way - and one-way chartered the MC Amethyst to carry the short-shipment boxes to Europe.
This resulted in a cost to the lines of the Dal Kalahari sailing 20% light, and some R1.5-million for the charter.
SAECS, therefore, laid a compensation claim on Portnet.
But there has been no measurable progress to date, SAECS CEO Rod Riseborough told FTW from his London office.
We are still pushing the issue of compensation, and more high-level meetings are now due for March.
If the port authorities reject the lines' claim, Riseborough added, there will be an inevitable upward pressure on rates.
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