Equipment breakdowns, excessive rain, surging swells, vessel ranging, heavy fog, and trucks backlogging into the container terminal because of an imperfect harbour carrier access system, are all part of another day of disrupted operations at the Port of Cape Town.
Oddly enough, all of the above on a bad day, or at least some of it on ‘better’ days, more often than not creates the impression that the port is not blocked up and there’s no build-up of cargo.
But Clifford Evans of freight forwarder Berry & Donaldson, has said it creates a deceptive sense of quiet, which several industry representatives have referred to as a “false positive”.
The fact remained that the port was underperforming and that its once robust ability to bounce back from Table Bay’s notoriously inclement weather, had been lost, Evans said.
Speaking about equipment breakdowns, he said four ship-to-shore (STS) cranes had gone out of action at the port where nine are ordinarily at hand.
“A report yesterday said the cranes were being repaired and should be returned to service soon but no details were provided when the cranes will be back in play.”
It’s nothing unusual for the industry to be told by Transnet that breakdowns are receiving urgent attention.
It’s an altogether different matter, though, when the industry asks, “When?”.
Evans said under ordinary circumstances there were about nine STS cranes available, and one was usually kept in reserve in the event of a sudden breakdown.
“So, when four are unavailable, it has an effect on operations. Thankfully, because of the bad weather, it doesn’t seem to be having an impact on operations.”
In its most recent Cargo Movement Update sent out earlier this week, the South African Association of Freight Forwarders and Business Unity SA, confirmed that challenging weather conditions all the way around South Africa’s coastline had impacted port operations.
“Strong winds and vessel ranging were the main culprits of operational delays in Cape Town,” the report said.
Further east of Cape Town, “ports conceded more than 40 operational hours this week to inclement weather”.
Durban, too, was not spared from nature’s say in day-to-day proceedings.
Evans also confirmed a complaint raised before, that Transnet Port Terminals had lost its ability to bounce back from bad weather events, challenging conditions noted in the annals of maritime industry since Portuguese seafarers sought a way around the Cape.
“The port used to be running within a day or two when bad weather would halt operations. Now it’s taking longer.”
In the meantime, it's understood that harbour carriers are being warned by way of an industry notification not to send trucks to the port 15 minutes ahead of an appointed slot.
Transporters thinking they might get a break to move a container but instead end up idling at the port, clogging up the terminal area and adding to the waiting time of others, will be “banned” for non-compliance.
A carrier’s comment that this is what a staging area is there for, elicited a reply saying the wave of cargo after a storm usually means everything is blocked up, so there’s no wiggle room for chancers hanging around out of desperation to move cargo.
