The crisis at South Africa’s ports reached new levels of congestion, according to a number of reports.
Durban harbour has thousands of containers that are stranded on ships.
According to Transnet, there are more than 60 ships that are anchored at the Port of Durban, and it will take seven to 15 weeks to clear these vessels.
The State-owned entity said that 20 of the 63 ships docking in Durban are meant to head to Durban Container Terminals (DCT) Pier 1 and Pier 2.
The company is actively working on a way to clear this major backlog.
Transnet said on Friday that, with all the initiatives employed, it would take Pier 1 seven weeks to clear the backlog and 15 weeks or less for Pier 2.
Striking picture of the crisis playing out at Durban harbour to see all this ships (there were a lot more that didn’t fit in the frame) all waiting at sea. The cost to the economy must be extraordinary and all brought in by ANC government failure and with no plan to resolve it pic.twitter.com/kTsVv8B3ie
— Dean Macpherson MP (@DeanMacpherson) November 17, 2023
CAPE TOWN PORT
The crisis at Durban is not isolated, and the issues at Transnet have also led to delays at Cape Town Port.
According to Business Live, the mother city is experiencing delays of up to 14 days in order to offload cargo from the ships that can be docked.
As a result of the delay, shipping conglomerate Maersk has decided to remove Cape Town as a port of call and will be using Mauritius.
The company said that they will now tranship all CT cargo in Port Louis and then send the cargo in smaller shipments to the Cape.
It should be noted that outgoing cargo from the CT will also go through this process.
Maersk said that commencing in the first week of December, Far East-West Africa (FEW2, FEW3, and FEW6) will have updated rotations.
In a statement, the company said that in addition to these, Cape Town Express, a new feeder service, will be introduced and connected to the updated SAFARI service.
“The new and updated ocean services have been designed with customers’ requirements in mind: seamless and reliable connection between the Far East and West Africa. South Africa, which is facing congestion, will get connected to a dedicated feeder service via Port Louis and be delinked from the FEW service in order to improve reliability and transit time.
“The new and updated ocean services have been designed with customers’ requirements in mind: seamless and reliable connection between the Far East and West Africa. South Africa, which is facing congestion, will get connected to a dedicated feeder service via Port Louis and be delinked from the FEW service in order to improve reliability and transit time.”
These delays in Durban and Cape Town will no doubt have a major impact on the festive season.
* This is a developing story.
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