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.