Terry Hutson
FOLLOWING DISCUSSIONS between SA Port Operations (Sapo) and its clients (FTW July 19, 2002), the following contingency plan aimed at pre-empting congestion at the country's container terminals has been agreed:
Straddle Replacement
A programme to replace 60 straddle carriers at the Durban Container Terminal (DCT) is underway. By the end of July, 20 will have arrived and will be in service - the balance will be delivered by December 2002 and eventually the port will have a total of 85 in service, which Sapo says will be more than enough for both water and land side operations.
Relocation
programme
In the meantime ten straddle carriers have been relocated to DCT's North quay from the East quay (berths 108/109) where they were substituted by a hauler-trailer operation. Two straddle carriers have been transferred to Port Elizabeth and a further three will follow in September. This will enable Port Elizabeth container terminal to bring its fourth ship-to-shore gantry crane into service as required.
New gantries
An order for three new post Panamax ship-to-shore gantry cranes will go out to tender within the next few weeks and SAPO is confident that these will arrive in Durban within a year, bringing the DCT fleet to 16.
Mobile crane
A mobile crane has been relocated from the Durban multi purpose terminal (MPT) to berth 108 at the container terminal and has already successfully gone into service loading and discharging containers. Sapo hopes to relocate two further mobile cranes from Richards Bay to Durban, with the assistance of Mediterranean Shipping Company.
Ships diverted
Some self-geared ships with less than 120 TEUs are being diverted to Durban's MPT where berth 107 has been identified for this
purpose. This has resulted in some breakbulk traffic being diverted to the Point or Maydon Wharf.
PE discharge
Shipping lines with
vessels whose first port of call is Port Elizabeth and then Durban have the option of discharging all cargo in PE. Consultations have been held with Spoornet to handle any additional rail traffic from PE.
Box stacking
Durban will revert to stacking boxes three high should the stacks become congested.
Seven high
In Cape Town, where
a large proportion of
containers are empties, a special area has been
created where the boxes can be stacked seven high.
Longer shift
At DCT, which already operates 363 days a year,
a 12-hour shift on a
sustained basis will soon become possible following the completion of a major training programme of additional straddle carrier and crane drivers.
Should peak container volumes kick in before this programme is completed
a 12-hour shift will nevertheless be implemented.
Slot system
At Durban's berth 204 a berthing slot system has been underway as a pilot programme since the beginning of June. Shipping lines are able to book a fixed berthing slot in advance for a special day and time, and as agreed the ship has to meet its window or be pushed back into the queue. A dedicated team has been assigned to this project and is operating from a special office within the DCT. This programme has been extended until the end of July.
As a final resort ships can be diverted from Durban to Port Elizabeth or even Cape Town on the basis of
available capacity.
Longer term plans
In the long term Durban's container terminal has
the possibility of being extended by one or two berths (207 and 207 option). This however poses considerable environmental concerns. In Cape Town scoping plans should be completed by year end to double the stacking capacity of the container terminal by extending the existing terminal by 300m seawards, with 2004/2005 targeted for completion date. A total of five berths at the container terminal will become available with this expansion and additional gantry cranes and straddle carriers will have to be obtained.
