Cape Town terminal merger boosts productivity

The merger of Cape Town Port terminals has increased productivity and performance, according to Western Province terminal executive Velile Dube.

Transnet Port Terminal (TPT) had merged its container and multipurpose terminals last month as part of a recovery plan after three weeks of industrial action in May, reported the South African Press Association.

Dube said the merger of the terminals, which had always operated as separate entities in the past, allowed TPT to plan holistically, make better use of infrastructure, equipment and facilities, and ensure that customer service and performance across the port were consistent.

It had taken the terminal two weeks from the end of the strike to clear the backlog of vessels, he said.

The terminals gross crane hours (GCH) -- the common measure of productivity in the container handling business -- had improved as well as the ship working hours (SWH) -- the number of containers that had been moved by the number of cranes working on the vessel in one hour.

The GCH had improved from an average of 22 to 28 GCH and the SWH, which was a key performance indicator for customers, had improved from an average of 39 to 42 SWH, said Dube.

GCH was a crucial factor in container shipping, which required fast and efficient movement of containers by crane operators to reduce the overall cost of doing business, he said.

Stack occupancy had stabilised at 50 percent.

Any figure below 65 percent signalled efficient operations, he said.

Truck turnaround times, to exit and enter the terminal for loading and offloading, had also improved from over 30 minutes to 23 minutes.
(Source:www.cargonewsasia.com)