The Port of Cape Town, the Department of Economic Development and Tourism and additional parties that attended a meeting on December 5, agreed on the implementation of a task team to handle the congestion taking place at the port, affecting the operations.
Specifically, the congestion experienced at the port affected the costs and efficiencies of the logistics and export industries, while also impacted the port’s economic development and job creation in the Western Cape.
During the meeting, the Department of Economic Development and Tourism explained that the most crucial factors causing congestion were institutional matters, port capacity, and the traffic flow of trucks carrying containers into and out of the Port.
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Therefore, the launch of the task team consists of ten senior representatives from the entire port logistics chain, who will have ten priority matters to find a solution to, from a shortage of cranes to traffic flows and effective communications throughout the logistics chain.
The congestion is a major challenge to the port, keeping in mind that where the global standard is three to five cranes per ship to load containers, the average number of cranes per ship at the Port of Cape Town is 2.5 for the year to date.
Concluding, the task team will meet within two weeks and implement the first remedial actions within three months. There are 10 priority issues, ranging from a shortage of cranes to traffic flows and effective communications throughout the logistics chain.
