How congested are South African ports?

Due to factors such as port equipment failures, the number of stranded containers in Durban alone exceeded 70000 10 days ago!

According to data, as of now, the volume of container cargo waiting to dock at the two major ports of Durban and Cape Town due to delays has far exceeded 100000 containers.

The cumulative number of blocked container ships has exceeded 100!

Durban and Cape Town, while becoming the most congested ports in the world, have also become nightmares for shippers and freight forwarding companies!

Recently, the South African Freight Forwarders Association (SAAFF) released an open letter titled "Addressing Our National Logistics Crisis: A Message from SAAFF"!

The association emphasized in an open letter that the logistics bottleneck (congestion) at our port has reached a critical point! This is a national logistics crisis.

The South African Freight Forwarders Association (SAAFF) also pointed out that Transnet, the operating company of ports and railways, is one of the main causes of port congestion.

Currently, Transnet is actively seeking solutions to address this severe situation and has plans to increase the container processing capacity of Terminal 2 from 2500 containers per day to 4000 containers per day within the next three months.

Similarly, the processing capacity of Terminal 1 is planned to increase from 1200 containers per day to 1500 containers per day.

In addition, Transnet has announced a suspension of cargo handling for trucks entering its Richard Bay port.

Only trucks destined for designated vessels will be subject to processing and customs clearance. Due to backlog, over 100000 trucks are gathering near South African ports. South African port officials have stated that efforts are currently being made to address the serious congestion problem at Durban Port.

It is expected that the backlog of ships may not be cleared until February next year.

Due to these large-scale delays, importers are preparing for the expected impact of delayed shipments for Christmas.

Transnet predicts that the clearance period for ships waiting outside the port will be at least 7 to 15 weeks.