Saldanha surcharge addresses cross-subsidisation issue

'Introduced after thorough consultation' Ð Kearns Ray Smuts THE PORT of Saldanha has imposed a R10 000 surcharge for the handling of ore vessels outside of working hours effective since May 1. The move has caused much unhappiness, even though thorough consultation took place with all the role players a year ago, says port manager Eugene Kearns. "It's not something coming out of the blue but their objection should be seen against the historical background of not being required to pay anything for after-hours assistance. "We are doing away with cross-subsidisation which was in effect when we had wharfage, but with wharfage falling away and marine services incurring losses it (marine services) has to stand on its own feet, hence the surcharge." The Port of Saldanha works a 12-hour day but Kearns stresses that if vessel owners are unable to schedule accordingly, marine services would be "more than happy" to render service. Tsietsi Mokhele, the NPA's executive manager for marine services, says the fact that marine services at Saldanha had been running at a loss was beginning to "undermine the sustainability of our business", the biggest cost being extra overtime paid to crews to come out to service vessels outside of normal working hours. At a meeting of major role players earlier this year - among them Iscor, Orex, Khumba, Assamang and Spoornet Ð it was explained that the surcharge would be raised to cover the costs of calling out pilots, tug crews and berthing staff to handle vessels on overtime. In the event of the surcharge not being acceptable, the vessel would be required to wait for normal port working hours but this decision was up to the vessel's operators. Figures supplied to FTW by Mokhele show that the tariff (based on normal port working) for an ore vessel of 80 000 GRT was R3 484 prior to May 1, whereas the actual cost was R8 857. For a tanker of 150 0090 GRT the tariff remained the same but the actual cost was R12 228. The under-recovery for tugs was even higher, ranging from R11 031 for 80 000 GRT ore vessels to R42 036 for 150 000 GRT tankers.