Stakeholders address pre-Christmas congestion fears

Alan Peat THE PORT of Durban is still jammed to near capacity with congestion looming as the seafreight industry moves into the pre-Christmas boom time, According to Dave Rennie, c.e. of Unicorn Lines, and chairman of the Container Liner Operators' Forum (Clof), the latest statistics show that the Durban container terminal (DCT) is recording an average delay time of 30 hours with a maximum of 100 hrs. The shipping lines can't afford things to deteriorate further from these figures, he added, with the ships anchored outside the port facing berthing delays in the 70 to 80 hour range. "We are already in a berthing congestion situation," said Rennie. "Any further delay Ð bad weather conditions, industrial action and the like - is going to cause a logjam in the port. And that's a difficult thing to clear." Nobody, including the harbour authorities, is very happy about this situation, he added, and everyone is trying to get things improved. "The lines have been addressing the issues on an on-going basis with SA Port Operations (Sapo) and we are making some progress," said Rennie But, he added, all that can be done at present is only a superficial cure. "We can't expect anything more until the port is expanded Ð with the new piers, straddle carriers and gantry cranes coming on line," Rennie said. "Meantime, any externalities like those I mentioned are going to cause a problem with terminal productivity. "There's a clear understanding by everyone that there are problems, and we must just get through them." The ultimate new port facilities Ð for which everything is in progress, Rennie said Ð will still take some 18 months to get up to speed. In the interim, an all-stakeholders group in the port liaison committee Ð the Durban Congestion Action Committee Ð will be trying its best to keep congestion at bay. But the lines are pessimistic about being able to get any recompense from the port authorities should this occur. While they are currently all negotiating their individual service level agreements (SLAs) with Sapo, Rennie expects this to take some time to be completed Ð and in the meantime it would only be the old compensation formulas that would apply. "We haven't been successful with those in the past," he said, "and so we don't think we'd be any more successful this time." See page 16 for Sapo's response