Bounce-back efforts at South Africa’s ports resulted in a combined throughput increase of 35.15% in container handling, the latest Cargo Movement Update by the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff) and Business Unity SA (Busa) shows.
This comes after severe weather, especially in the Western Cape, played havoc with sea freight capacity at the beginning of July.
According to the update, inclement weather drove down container handling to 6199 per day, but the most recent week-on-week for daily handling increased to 8377.
Most recently, “port operations were again disrupted by adverse weather conditions, as well as equipment breakdowns and shortages,” Saaff and Busa said.
“Although weather conditions improved in Cape Town this week, operations were still impacted by vessel ranging, while adverse weather and equipment breakdowns disrupted operations at the Port of Durban.”
Strong winds and vessel ranging also affected the Eastern Cape, causing delays at a number of the province’s ports.
The Port of Richards Bay (PoRB) steadied the ship, so to speak, with minimal delays reported, Saaff and Busa said. (See related report about improved Sasol coal exports by PoRB).
