Technical glitch prevents release of port handling figures

THE PORT congestion surcharge (termed a “port additional” by the shipping lines) at Durban has not yet been lifted despite a number of reports of limited ship delays at the harbour since the last week of November.
The problem, according to Noel Cronje - who has been tasked by the Container Liner Operators Forum (Clof) to monitor the figures for average ship delay - is that SA Port Operations (Sapo) had a “technical problem” over the festive season, and updated figures are not yet available.
This was confirmed by a member of the SA Shippers Council (SASC), who also told FTW that no figures were available for the Christmas period.
Said Cronje: “As soon as we get data, we’ll compile the graph, and measure the performance index.”
This being the criterion against which the conferences have agreed to lift the surcharge - when the running average for ship delays remains below 16 hours for 28 consecutive days.
“We need this measurement,” said Cronje, “and hope that Sapo will respond quickly. As soon as they do, we will get cracking on putting the figures together, and forwarding them to representatives of each conference.”