Despite the assurance by Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) on Monday, April 19 that the backlogs from the Durban strike the week before had all been cleared, the latest port information forwarded to FTW by Lawrie Bateman, MD of rail users, MSC Logistics, indicated there was still a considerable backlog on Friday, April 23. “This backlog has been on for the whole week,” he told FTW. Monday morning figures showed the equivalent of 1 240 TEUs of imports still sitting at Durban container terminal (DCT) waiting for trains; and seven trains (containing 550 export containers) still waiting at Kings Rest. By Wednesday the waiting containers at the docks had eased somewhat, but more trains were jammed up. Port stats showed there were 12 trains stacked up at Kings Rest waiting to get into the port area with about 447 export containers aboard, while there were 1 024 TEUs of imports still on the docks waiting to be uplifted. The delays were still persisting on Friday. The stats revealed that there were 1 116-TEUs of imports still to be railed to various rail destinations, with eight trains carrying 283 containers of exports waiting at Kings Rest.
