It will take four-and-a-half months to clear the backlog at the Durban harbour, where about 63 vessels are still anchored and waiting to be processed. Transnet Port Terminals (TPT), which manages the Durban container terminals, says it has already lost R160m since September and is likely to lose more.
The financial losses are insignificant to Transnet, which makes about R70bn in annual revenue, but the congestion at the ports is seen as a serious challenge that requires urgent attention and oversight from the government because it affects SA’s fiscal position, trade balance and economic growth.
Transnet, which does not make enough profit to service its R130bn debt pile, has asked for a R100bn bailout. The request has been turned down, with finance minister Enoch Godongwana saying that first he needs to be convinced that the board has mapped out a cogent turnaround strategy.
TPT Durban terminals managing executive Earle Peters said the port’s two piers lost a combined 265 operational hours in September and October, causing more than 20 vessels to wait at outer anchorage, with berthing delays averaging up to 18 days.
The entity has blamed poor weather conditions as well as equipment breakdowns and shortages for the delays.
“We are confident in our ability having faced major unforeseen challenges successfully in the past, some much bigger than our current position,” Peters said during a media briefing on Monday.
In the first three months of 2025, Pier 1 will replace 16 rubber-tyred gantry cranes and Pier 2 will acquire 36 straddle carriers. In 2026, Pier 2 will acquire four more ship-to-shore cranes.
To sustain current operations, the sourcing of second-hand cargo-handling equipment from customers as a temporary measure is under way. A 24-hour maintenance regime has begun to ensure existing equipment is available and reliable.
The Durban terminal is Transnet’s biggest container terminal, handling 72% of the Port of Durban’s throughput and 46% of SA’s port traffic. Broken equipment has caused a crisis at the port, which handles about 60% of the country’s container traffic and suffers from long waiting times and penalty fees imposed by carriers.
Business Day reported previously that major retailers such as Woolworths and Truworths have raised concern about the worsening delays at the ports.
Once the backlog has been cleared, TPT plans to ramp up the movement of containers at Pier 2 from 2,500 to 4,000 a day over a three-month period.
Pier 1 will increase movement from 1,200 to 1,500 containers a day.
Under normal conditions, the container handling tempo at Pier 2 is 3,300 containers a day. However, over the past four weeks this has been reduced to 2,500 because of inclement weather and equipment challenges, Transnet says.
“The problem of port congestion is a complex one and it is something that was due to happen at some point, as a result of many years of underinvestment in equipment and its maintenance,” Transnet chair Andile Sangqu said.
“We are working on a number of measures to turn the situation around. We need to caution that this is going to take some time as the lead times for some of the equipment [are] anything from 12 to 18 months.
“If we can optimise the way in which we fund our infrastructure, it could free up a lot of cash that can then be diverted to help us fast-track the funding of the maintenance backlog.”
The number of trucks carrying goods to SA’s ports has surged in recent months because of the collapse of Transnet’s railway system. It has necessitated local law enforcement agencies in the city of uMhlathuze — where Richards Bay port is located — to deploy personnel on the N2 to staff makeshift truck staging areas to accommodate the traffic volumes. These mitigation plans come at a huge environmental and financial cost to the city.
Shipping majors Maersk and MSC have said they will impose a congestion surcharge fee for all dry containers to SA from early December. And last week Maersk said it will bypass Cape Town as a port of call on a big Far East route to avoid disruption and spiralling operating costs.
Business Unity SA (Busa) has called on Transnet to urgently resolve the crisis at the ports. “The current state of these ports indicates a substantial gap between their current operational performance and the desired benchmarks in multiple critical aspects of maritime logistics, often referred to as demonstrated capacity,” Busa says in its latest Cargo Movement Report.
“Transnet must improve its performance or the SA economy will continue to bleed unnecessarily. Nevertheless, as we have often mentioned, logistics take place on a shared infrastructure with shared responsibility by all parties. It is not only Transnet that must improve its performance, but indeed all role players operating within the extended logistics network.”
With Michelle Gumede
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