Operational improvement at the Port of Cape Town’s multi-purpose terminal (MPT) is on track to meet its target of 71 973 containers for the financial year-end in four weeks’ time, says Terry Gale, chairman of Exporters Club Western Cape.
Throughput currently sat at 66 891 TEUs, he said, describing the MPT’s latest figures for the week ending February 27 as “excellent stats”.
Last week’s target was 2 500 TEUs, but 3 189 went through the terminal.
What’s more, Gale added, was that G Berth was about to be brought on line alongside berths F and H.
Previously, G was not in use, but with three working landside cranes, G can also be brought into operation for vessels with their own gear.
Gale said the achieved figures boded well, considering the port’s previous vessel working capability.
“Cast your mind back a few months when the MPT was out of operation entirely, and what has transpired over the past few months.”
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Cape Town Container Terminal.
“CTCT did not reach its target of 20 000 TEUs,” said Gale.
Only 15 085 TEUs were handled and the number of trucks handled totalled 7 863.
Furthermore, there were 24 hours of wind delays for the same week ending February 27.
Hopefully, efficiency will improve with the hydraulic equipment that is planned to come on-stream mid-March.
As the CTCT operates as a 24/7 facility, with currently only 11% of after-hours utilisation, there is room for improvement as only 961 trucks took advantage of this over the seven-day period.
As for the inland Belville Container (Belcon) facility, “there were 474 rail moves, which is a significant increase as there are capacity constraints at Belcon”.
Issues impeding smoother flows through Belcon were being addressed, with some new plans in the pipeline, said Gale.
