Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) had started implementing performance guidelines for terminal operations, to increase efficiencies in all its ports around the country, the division’s chief executive, Tau Morwe, said yesterday.
This would be done through a signed agreement between the port authority and terminal operators on throughput, performance and turnaround time of vessels docking at berths.
“We will be entering into agreements with consequences: if the terminal operator does not perform there shall be consequences,” Morwe said.
This process would be implemented alongside operational centres that would act as bird’s-eye views on the operations of ports. This would help give a view on where constraints were in port operations and “they can be dealt with”.
Morwe told port stakeholders in Durban yesterday that the Durban container terminal (DCT) had suffered capacity problems since 2002.
“It takes on average 107 hours for a vessel to be stuck in the waters of Durban. We need to change that; we need to move to a system where vessels come in, get serviced, and leave,” he said.
Morwe was pleased the government was starting to understand the role that ports played in the economy. This was visible through Operation Phakisa, launched by President Jacob Zuma in July.
Operation Phakisa will focus on unlocking the economic potential of the country’s ocean surface. It is estimated they could contribute up to R177 billion to gross domestic product (GDP) by 2033.
The potential will be exploited through investments in the areas of marine transport and manufacturing, as well as offshore oil and gas exploration, among other things.
Morwe said the ports system remained critical in such initiatives. Through its ports, railways, and pipeline systems, Transnet contributed about 1.5 percent to the country’s GDP. It employed about 18 000 people countrywide.
Nico Walters, TNPA’s general manager for strategy, said that the ports’ operational centres would be able to give the port authority and operators information on the whole operational chain of the port.
“People will be seeing the movement of cargo as well as the whole chain,” he said. The impetus was for the port authority to identify potential bottlenecks and to increase efficiencies where possible.
Walters said the terminal operations performance programme was different from the running of the operational centres. “We have identified targets which are being shared with port terminal operators. The targets will highlight expectations from the port authority and will be monitored.”
He said the authority had looked at benchmarks in other ports worldwide, but the targets would not be a like-for-like comparison as terminals differed.
TNPA will receive R53 billion of the R300bn seven-year capital expenditure projects undertaken in Transnet’s market demand strategy programme.
Through its infrastructure programme, the state-owned logistics utility will modernise rail, port and pipeline infrastructure. For the 2014/15 financial year, TNPA will spend about R2.5bn on its capital projects.
The money will be spent on a new dredger as well as on building tug boats.