RAY SMUTS IF A spell in Antwerp has taught Cape Town container terminal business unit manager Oscar Borchards anything it is that there is a way to smarter management, and that is precisely what he is in the process of putting into action. “I came away with the realisation we can improve our technology and our processes on site, including a higher per crane hour move rate,” said Borchards, who attended a two-week, South African Port Operations-organised, container terminal management seminar along with several other Sapo colleagues, including the Mother City’s terminal planning manager David Davids. Conducted by the APEC training institute in the Belgian port city, the course was attended by more than 30 representatives from the likes of Nigeria, Ghana, Peru and Oman, covering such subject matter as cranes, information systems, security and capacity planning. Reflecting on a useful learning curve, Borchards says: “We saw that productivity at the various Antwerp terminals is a minimum of 25 moves per crane hour, one operator consistently achieving 31 moves, but my feeling is the range there is between 25 and 30 moves per crane hour. Antwerp, with its plethora of modern equipment, handles around six million containers a year while Cape Town managed some 582 000 TEUs at the end of 2004. “In Cape Town we are currently standing at 18 moves and the target, really, is to progressively increase to 20 moves by March next year and, optimistically, 25 thereafter.” Borchards says the overriding message of the Belgian experience boils down to sufficient cranes, along with improved processes and working smarter. Two Sapo officials are currently abroad with a mandate from Sapo CEO Tau Morwe to source cranes for the country’s ports. “Working smarter obviously means better utilisation of our Cosmos operating system for the inward and outward movement of boxes and we are in the process of identifying measures to achieve just that.”
