It was a happy Xmas at the ports of SA
The message was no congestion this past festive season although Portnet was skeletally-staffed, and volumes did not fall away as much as many expected, according to FTW observers around the country.
While no official, high-level words were available from Cape Town or Port Elizabeth, the more junior commentators talked to suggested that all went smoothly at the two ports.
FTW's national band of freighting contacts also made no adverse noises.
Indeed, John Nagle, export trade manager at SANS Fibre in Cape Town (the biggest single user of the port in the Western Province) had a happy and (he hopes) prosperous New Year - returning to work in January to good news.
I was just looking at my billing, he told FTW only days into January. December was very good, and I've no reports of any problems whatsoever.
And SANS is a bit back-to-front in its festive season activities - remaining production-active in a period when most others in the textile sectors shut shop.
We normally have a higher export market over Xmas, Nagle said, because the domestic market generally closes, but we don't, and we're looking for extra export opportunities at this time.
Portnet's Ronnie Holtshausen, marketing chief at the Port of Durban, was also happy with the way things moved through this major seafreight gateway to SA.
Although he had no container movement numbers yet to hand at the beginning of the month, the number of ships calling at the port in December indicated a fairly busy time. And no problems, Holtshausen added.
A total of 367 vessels crossed the bar at Durban harbour - with the cargo-carrying element reading: container vessels, 126; bulk carriers, 37; tankers, 33; and general, 65. Add the other 106 vessels - 70 of which were in for bunkers, and 12 belonging to the fishing fleet - and Durban handled 18.51-million deadweight tons of ship capacity over the festive month.
The pilots and tugs were also busy.
The pilots guided a 1.1% increase in tonnage over the previous month of November, and 3.9% more than in December 1997 when labour problems logjammed the port.
With 844 moves logged, the tug fleet was also busy - this total making December the fifth busiest month of the year in ship moves. And that 18.51-m tons dwt also fitted the scale of things as fifth biggest tonnage month.
The only delays FTW could find were in the logbook for the tug fleet - and these are included more
to tease, than for a real gripe.
A total of 14 tug delays saw 12.45 hours lost. But only four months of 1998 enjoyed a smaller number, although seven others had less hours lost.
All-in-all, the plans for the holiday period seem to have passed the test.
