What have been the problems stemming from the go-slow at the Port of Durban?
After FTW had followed the upsurge of worker dissatisfaction at the port in recent weeks; falling productivity (from an already low level internationally); and covered the enormous cost to shipping lines of having to anchor off out in the roadstead while waiting for a berth, we decided to take this enquiry a step forward. To raise the viewpoint of a number of the port users - and assess the effect on their businesses of this latest bout of industrial strife.
Of the seven randomly selected users, two said they had had no problems as yet. One was involved in insurance claims recovery, and felt that the thrust of the go-slow had yet to reach him through the insurance claims pipeline.
But four of the seven (54.14% of the total) reported serious problems - both in physical delays and costs.
Here is what the four told FTW:
Craig Beart of Micor projects department.
In projects, we move lots of freight into Southern Africa - using Lloyd Triestino as our main carrier.
It's been a difficult period, because obviously a lot of the cargo is urgent. The sort of cargo where a mining client could very well have his mine coming to a halt if the equipment is not available as expected.
And we certainly have had delays. Some of them huge delays, with all the accompanying inefficiency making them even more problematic.
It puts pressure on us because we are responsible for our contract shippers' freight movement. Saying it's out-of-our-control holds no water. We are still held responsible.
It also puts pressure on customers
who are trying to break into foreign
markets. Foreign buyers are suspicious enough already about South Africa's reliability on delivery times. This latest situation can only be acting to confirm this suspicion.
Some of the cargoes - none of them small - have also had to go airfreight to meet the necessary delivery timing. This escalates the transport costs enormously.
Paul Rayner, m.d. of Durban-based DTB Cartage.
It's hurting the whole of commerce and industry.
From a personal point-of-view we've just lost a contract to ship 27 containers because of a vessel short-landing at Durban. That's R27 000 down the drain.
And if that's the situation in our little microcosm of the freight business, imagine what it's doing to big exporters, importers and the forwarding industry.
Erika Gerkens of the Johannesburg-based British Metal Corporation and predominantly an importer of metal.
If you are lucky, and have no customers complaining, you're OK.
It is something out of our control. But this is no excuse if the customer's business has problems arising from these delays.
One lot of containers we had were delayed from landing for four days. But the three containers were moved up from Durban by rail very quickly, so this wasn't too much of a problem.
But we also had a container for a client which was held up for five days - from June 1 to 6. In this case, the customer had no material to work with, so he was not a very happy man.
Doug Peel, divisional shipping manager of Sappi Export Services in Durban.
I'm quite furious about all this.
We are extremely unhappy about the whole situation and are looking at making representation to the highest possible level at Portnet.
It's a major problem for us.
The value of our exports is a significant part of the SA total - some 1%-to-2%, we reckon. But, if this problem continues, our reliability as an international exporter will fall apart.
We have weekly, named-day services offered to us by the shipping lines, and time all our deliveries to this scheduled frequency. Our customers, meantime, have been busy cutting their expensive stockholdings because of this delivery frequency, optimising to a small stockholding which must be replenished regularly.
What are they going to say when our shipment misses the weekly ship, or it misses us, because of the delays?
It is also affecting our cash flow. When the tonnages that we forecast don't go out in time to be included in the monthly or quarterly report, what happens to our cash flow? It goes down the tubes, that's what.
By Alan Peat
