Are our ports terminal?

Thursday, 04 February 2010 09:47

Transnet’s limited capacity to deliver, particularly with regard to ports, is not having a positive impact

Transport and logistics companies continue to suffer heavy traffic congestion and backlogs due to Transnet’s capacity restraints at its container terminals. This has resulted increasingly in freight traffic being diverted from South African ports to the highly competitive Port of Maputo.

However, Transnet has been hard at work upgrading its facilities to meet demand and improve efficiency, and more innovative initiatives are in the pipeline.

But industry leaders, from Sturrock Shipping managing director Andrew Sturrock to Road Freight Association (RFA) Technical and Operations manager Gavin Kelly, agree that South African ports have been losing market share to Maputo.

Operators in the road transport and logistics chain – which moves 80% of all freight in South Africa – point out that while trucks can be stuck in queues for 12 hours or even more in ports such as Durban, the turnaround time in Maputo is much quicker and without any holdups.

The Port of Maputo is managed privately by Mozambique International Port Services (MIPS), and owned jointly by South African company Grindrod, Dubai Ports World and the Mozambican government. The container terminal currently has excess capacity and is expected to more than double its freight volumes by 2010 to 91 000 20-metre equivalent units (TEUs) a year, up from the 44 000 units handled in 2005. Conservative estimates by MIPS project volumes in excess of 121 000 TEUs annually by 2013.

The efficient management of the port, the upgraded facilities, the reduction in bureaucratic red tape and the fact that there is no traffic congestion and delays, backed up by the improved road and rail infrastructure and services of the Maputo Corridor project that offers the shortest route to the sea from Gauteng, is proving to be an attractive lure for operators from particularly Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Swaziland.

The Port of Maputo has shown steady growth since MIPS was awarded a lease and management agreement in 1996. Since then, large volumes of citrus, automobile and coal exports have exited through this port as well as general containerised cargo. The port boasts modern car, container, coal and bulk-liquid terminals.

In July last year, Antonio Almeida Matos, co-chairperson of the Maputo Corridor Logistics Initiative (MCLI), said the port was moving close to eight million tonnes of cargo a year and hoped to increase this to 40 million tonnes a year within the next few decades. Upgrading projects to the value of US$300m to handle the anticipated increased traffic are already in the pipeline.

One problem, though, is the fact that trucks offloading in the port mostly return empty to South Africa. Therefore, attention will now be focused on turning it also into a major port for imports to South Africa.

That South African ports are experiencing serious capacity restraints at their container terminals, particularly in Durban, has been acknowledged boldly by Tau Morwe, acting chief executive of Transnet Port Terminals (TPT), a division of state-owned Transnet. According to him, Transnet would have to increase its capacity both in respect of its container terminals and its rail capacity, while not taking away business from the road freight industry.

However, Transnet, which operates 15 terminals at six ports, has already done much to alleviate the problem. By its last financial year-end, capital investments had increased by 59.1% to R3.1 billion, resulting in significant progress being made with an efficiency drive, for example, resulting in average moves per gross crane hour at the Durban container terminals improving by up to 26%.

Among the other projects undertaken by Transnet is the construction of the new container terminal at Pier 1 in the Port of Durban and the R3.9-billion widening and deepening of the harbour entrance channel that will enable the port to handle the larger new generation ships as well as improve the safety standards to match international norms; the R4.2-billion doubling of the Cape Town Container Terminal’s current capacity of 700 000 TEUs; the new deepwater Port of Ngqura in the Eastern Cape going operational with its 800 000 TEUs capacity container terminal that has state-of-the-art handling equipment; improved productivity at Richards Bay Dry Bulk Terminal, following the re-engineering and refurbishment of equipment; vastly improved productivity at Saldanha Iron Ore Terminal through the doubling of loading operations; and increasing maintenance at terminals by 78%.

However, TPT has also been facing severe challenges due to the recession with volumes – including in the container sector – decreasing after five years of consistent growth.

In June last year, Morwe told delegates at the South African Association of Freight Forwarders conference in Gauteng that it was critical for Transnet to start investing in infrastructure and port capacity.

He said the lack of investment over the previous 20 years was causing significant congestion at terminals such as in Durban, which handles two-thirds of the country’s container traffic.

Work already has been completed to improve the efficiency of waterside operations at the Durban terminal, while work is under way to improve landside efficiency.

According to transport operators, it is the latter where the major problems are being experienced, resulting in severe congestion causing hundreds of trucks to line up in queues of up to 5km every day with turnaround times of around 12 hours.

Morwe also believes the lack of technology at port terminals and in the trucking industry added to the problems.

From Transnet’s side, attempts have been made to upgrade technology.

For example, it has installed automated gates at Durban’s Pier 1, allowing trucks to move through without stopping.

Another system, PierPASS, has been imported from the United States to enable trucks to use the terminal facilities 24 hours a day, but container depots will have to be convinced to remain open 24 hours a day, too, to make the system work.

And a parking facility called A-Check is being installed to help streamline co-ordination between submission of documents and the loading or offloading of goods.

Finally, a number of other projects also have been undertaken or are in the pipeline to help ease the situation at the Durban container terminals, among these improvement of access roads by the municipality, a new rail link, and possibly converting Durban’s existing airport into a dugout container terminal.

Morwe added that Transnet plans to invest some R9bn in its ports over the next five years.

Meanwhile, the new Ngqura container terminal – recently used for the first time – could help ease some of the congestion at other facilities. The facility, which can accommodate the new generation of ultra-mega and post-Panamax ships with capacities ranging from 6 000 to 10 000 TEUs, is said to have the potential to become South Africa’s major container shipping port and a major container hub for all of Africa south of the equator.

Stef Terblanche

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