Exporters in the Western Cape who rely on the Port of Cape Town to move goods have applauded reforms to ease bottlenecks at terminals, but say that removing bureaucracy would bring further improvements.
Terry Gale, chair of Exporters Western Cape, told Business Times Cape Town has seen improved operations since the crisis-level bottlenecks experienced in the country’s ports in 2023.
He said the Port of Cape Town was becoming more effective at securing critical equipment to operate, buying seven second-hand rubber tyre gantries (RTGs) — which move containers within terminals — from Los Angeles in 2023.
“We are seeing the movement and the gantry numbers increasing exponentially as well. They are almost becoming what we call a world standard ... A few weeks ago we were one of the best-performing ports in the world. That doesn’t mean that there are no problems, but now we have the right team on board.”
The port, which handles more than 6Mt a year, has since brought another nine RTGs onstream, which should start operating later this month.
“We have nine ship-to-shore gantries in the main Cape Town terminal,” Gale said. “We find that a minimum of seven are operational. But when they go out of order, it seems to take a lot quicker because there are guys on board who can repair equipment when it does go out.”
He said exporters had experienced a challenge when one of the gantries at a terminal had a flat tyre. Their frustration with repair delays was so great that they offered to fix the damaged equipment themselves.
“And we actually almost said we will get a pump ourselves to go pump the bloody tyre up because it almost had to be approved by the president, which is so stupid. So the port came to a standstill because one of the gantries had a flat tyre. We cannot afford that. Time is money for every single one of us.”
Gale said the speed which Transnet and the port had gathered recently was “an incredible step in the right direction” because people who understand the industry are currently making the decisions.
Rikus Badenhorst, chair of the parliamentary select committee on public infrastructure, said the Port of Cape Town was still experiencing significant challenges regarding capacity limitations and weather conditions that did not allow normal operations.
“Port of Cape Town is very limited with regard to space,” he said. “Our container terminals do not have a lot of berths. We’ve also got a major problem in Cape Town with regard to the weather. So inclement weather plays a huge role. Every time there are winds exceeding 70km/h, a lot of our gantries cannot operate, and port operations come to a standstill.”
The World Bank has previously ranked the Port of Cape Town the worst among 405 ports assessed globally.
According to the Reform Tracker developed by Business Leadership South Africa with Krutham, the corporatisation of the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has led to concessioning gaining momentum at ports.
Cecilia Schultz, an analyst at Krutham, wrote that in December the TNPA selected a private partner — FFS Tank Terminals — to operate, maintain, refurbish or construct and transfer a liquid bulk terminal at the Port of Cape Town for a 25-year concession period.
“Substantive operational outcomes cannot yet be measured, as most concession processes are still in procurement phases rather than operational implementation,” Schultz said.
“A private partner has been selected for the Cape Town port. The PPP [public-private partnership] agreement has not yet been signed, and commercial work is yet to begin. Multiple RFPs [request for proposals] have been issued across different ports since 2023.”
She said multiple concessioning plans are being implemented, and the Port of Cape Town liquid bulk terminal RFP requires successful bidders to acquire, operate, maintain and transfer facilities over a 25-year concession period.
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