Creecy seeks Durban terminal plan as ship waits average 8.3 days

Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has asked the operators of Durban Gateway Terminal at Pier 2 for a detailed plan to clear its backlog, as average vessel waiting times stand at 8.3 days, SABC News reported on Friday.

Speaking at the terminal, Creecy said the eventual target was a 24-hour wait, while acknowledging that the improvement would take time. She said the terminal had also failed to meet that target before the current operating arrangement, with its best performance then about three days.

According to the SABC report, published at 18:23 on 2 October, the congestion followed the introduction of a new Navis operating system in August. The migration disrupted cargo flows, truck bookings and vessel movements.

Some individual waits reached 12 days, according to the report, while the 8.3-day figure represents an average across vessels.

In a separate customer notice dated 28 September, Durban Gateway Terminal said it had not charged storage fees on containers in the terminal since early August. It outlined a phased return to standard storage arrangements from 1 October as cargo evacuation improved.

For general-purpose cargo arriving on vessels berthing from that date, the notice provides five days of free storage. It says the period will eventually be reduced to four days and then the standard three days when operationally practical.

The terminal said the revised arrangements formed part of efforts to reduce the time containers spend in the yard and restore normal cargo collection patterns. It urged customers to organise transport within the applicable free-storage period.

File photograph: containers at the Port of Durban on 9 July 2010. Photo: Christophe Badoux / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Display crops remain under the same licence.