The World Bank Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) 2025 brings encouraging news for South Africa's container ports and highlights performance gains worth recognising. However, important insights lie not in the published rankings, but in substantial areas of logistics performance that remain beyond the index's field of vision.
The latest World Bank and S&P Global Container Port Performance Index again offers a useful – but limited – view of container port performance. The CPPI is a vessel-time-in-port indicator, adjusted for vessel and call size. It is not a whole-system measure of port or logistics performance and does not, on its own, measure port throughput, cost, cargo dwell time, landside evacuation, hinterland connectivity, service reliability or cargo-owner outcomes.
The rankings therefore do not tell the full story. While Durban, Ngqura and Port Elizabeth recorded material year-on-year improvements in the latest index, South Africa's real challenge is to move beyond isolated indicators and build an integrated, transparent view of the full port-logistics system.
What is required is better data visibility. There remains a need for structured data sharing between Transnet, industry and relevant public-sector partners to enable a more complete and trusted assessment of port and corridor performance.
Without access to consistent operational data – including vessel, Container Terminal Operations Contract window, terminal, landside, rail, road, dwell-time, cost and reliability indicators – neither government nor industry can properly diagnose bottlenecks, distinguish operational improvement from system recovery or hold the logistics network accountable.
Equally important, the value of performance measurement as a planning and risk-management tool is significantly diminished when assessment is based on a narrow set of vessel-time indicators.
The latest CPPI results should therefore be treated not as the final word on South African port performance, but as a prompt to deepen collaborative measurement, improve transparency and develop a comprehensive national performance framework for ports, corridors and cargo-owner outcomes.
The improvements posted by Durban, Ngqura and Port Elizabeth, alongside progress in Cape Town, have been achieved under challenging circumstances. They deserve recognition and are welcomed by cargo owners and supply chain participants whose competitiveness depends, in no small measure, on efficient port performance.
Improving port-system performance will require continued collaboration across industry and government, beyond the bounded measure of the CPPI. While the CPPI contributes a useful piece of the performance puzzle, it should not be regarded as a definitive measure of port-system effectiveness or national logistics competitiveness.
