Truck queues ‘back to normal’ after Navis-related disruptions

The two KZN ports of Richards Bay and Durban continue to grow their business in their respective sectors – bulk commodities at Richards Bay and general cargo including containers and some bulk at Durban. With the advent of a wider and deeper port entrance channel at Durban it is noteworthy that several shipping lines almost immediately brought larger ships into service, up to 8 000-TEU capacity. While the latter may seem impressive, it needs to be remembered that the berths at Durban’s container terminal remain limited to 12.8m draught, meaning that the larger ships are unable to use the port while fully loaded. There is still no confirmation when Transnet NPA intends deepening the container berths. While the port was progressing well with container handling, the introduction of the Navis SPARCS N4 operating system at the Durban Container Terminal (DCT) at the end of March brought about few sparks but lots of blown fuses. With the system grinding to a halt, truck and rail delivery delays mounted, escalating far beyond the gates of DCT – with container trains cancelled or delayed in Gauteng and massive truck queues in Durban. Container crane moves per hour dropped from a peak of 26 and an average of between 20 and 22 to less than 14 an hour, and by early April it was taking up to 15 hours to turn a truck around through the terminal. Gradually Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) and its team of specialist experts got on top of the problems and although still problematic, the terminal has cleared the backlog of waiting ships and truck queues are back to normal.