DURBAN LAST week hosted the Ports, Waterfronts and Terminals Conference which focused on productivity and efficiency reforms at the ports. High on the agenda were Portnet's privatisation plans.
FTW's Durban correspondent, Terry Hutson, was one of some 50 delegates
who attended.
COMPETITION BETWEEN the door to door carriers of cargo and not direct competition between the ports will determine long-term productivity requirements at South Africa's six commercial ports, says Department of Transport maritime consultant Henriette van Niekerk.
Van Niekerk, who lectures in maritime economics at the University of Stellenbosch and who is an expert on port tariff structures, was presenting a paper at the Ports, Waterfronts & Terminals Conference held in Durban last week.
Port authorities will inevitably have to divest themselves of operations in many of the ports to enable the incorporation of terminal operations in the competitive supply of cargo transport, she told delegates. The threat and resistance by organised labour which it engenders, constitutes probably the greatest impediment to the restructuring of the organisation of traditional ports.
Van Niekerk said that selling equity in South African ports may well prove to be the most acceptable means of achieving private participation, citing the example of SAA.
The solution necessitates implementing policies which achieve the rationalisation
of port functions to
support globalisation, while entrenching social security, she cautioned.
Commenting on port charges in a privatised scenario, where the port authority performed the primary function of landlord and left the supply of port services and cargo handling to port users, van Niekerk said that charges that were not cost-related, in particular wharfage, would have to be eliminated. These, she said, should be substituted by rent for the use of port land and by charges based on costs for services rendered.
Restructuring port charges in South Africa cannot, however, be achieved without divorcing the landlord function of the port owner from that of the port operator.
Under this scenario the port authority would constitute a landlord who manages basic port assets in the national interest, by letting land and infrastructure to port operators, she advised. The latter, whether private or Transnet, would lease the land and infrastructure in order to supply ship, cargo and associated services.
This is essential, because the port owner constitutes a monopolistic landlord who must promote the use of public assets comprising basic port structure through state enterprise pricing. The
port operator or operators should supply their services in a competitive market in order to ensure their efficiency.
