There appears to have been a slight improvement at the Port of Durban where equipment failure has caused critical congestion, causing vessels to wait at outer anchorage with as many 71 000 containers delayed by as long as three weeks.
Thankfully, whereas the number of ships idling at sea was more than sixty at the peak of the port’s logistics crisis, vessels at anchorage have decreased to 51, reported the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff).
In its Daily Supply Chain Movement Report released at 2 pm on Wednesday, the association gave the breakdown of waiting vessels as follows: 24 container ships, 11 dry bulkers, four break-bulkers, and 14 liquid tankers while two reported as “other” vessels.
A total of 31 vessels were at berth.
The available resources were five tugs, five berthing gangs, a pilot boat and one helicopter.
Up the coast at the Port of Richards Bay, where congestion caused by ore exports has caused significant supply-chain snags resulting in the town’s road grid-locking and tipper trucks tail-backing far up the N2, Saaff said 18 vessels were at anchorage.
Thirteen vessels were berthed.
The congestion at KwaZulu-Natal’s ports becomes clear considering the apparent lack of waiting time reported elsewhere in the country’s port system.
At the ports of Cape Town, Ngqura and Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha), two vessels each at the first two ports and four at PE were at anchorage by the time Saaff finalised its update.
The Port of Cape Town, in particular, frequently lashed by bad weather but bolstered by equipment, especially rubber-tired gantry cranes, had significantly transformed throughput in recent days thanks to more gangs working more vessels because of access to more functioning machinery.
The improved performance at Cape Town underscores what can be done through more equipment.
