Finance and Economic Opportunities
In relation to the ongoing bottleneck at the Port of Cape Town:
(1) How much money is estimated to have been lost by the Western Cape economy because of the bottleneck at the Port since the start of 2022;
(2) whether his Department has engaged the Transnet National Ports Authority regarding the ongoing situation; if so, (a) what was the outcome of the discussions and (b) did Transnet make any commitment to address the bottleneck;
(3) whether his Department has plans to engage the Department of Agriculture to assist commercial farmers who have been unable to export their fruit on time because of the bottleneck; if so, what are the relevant details;
(4) whether the Port has the capacity to deal with the increased workload that it will see after the disaster in KwaZulu-Natal; if not, how is the Department planning to support the Port to ensure adequate capacity?
[1] The Port of Cape Town is a critical asset in the provincial economy and has the potential to either boost or compromise economic growth in the Western Cape. Which is why the Department of Economic Development and Tourism [DEDAT] is currently conducting a specialist research project to quantify the impact of port inefficiencies in the Port of Cape Town on the economy of the Western Cape.
[2] DEDAT has been engaging Transnet about the Port of Cape Town since September 2019. These engagements have been at all levels. The outcome of these engagements is a willingness to collaborate with Western Cape Government and reach consensus on a framework of priorities to reduce congestion in the container terminal. The priorities include equipment augmentation and improved communications within the logistics chain. A new mobile harbour crane was deployed to the Cape Town Multi-Purpose Terminal in December 2021, which improved performance in this terminal significantly. A new hydraulic tensioning system was installed in one berth in the main container terminal in April 2022, which will mitigate the impact of ranging, especially during the citrus season. Weekly operations co-ordination meetings are held to address specific delays. Additional commitments made by Transnet Port Terminals are that a ninth ship to shore crane and four new rubber tyred gantries will be deployed to the main container terminal. This will have a significant impact on reducing congestion. DEDAT has mobilised fruit exporters at the request of Transnet Port Terminals to make more use of the night shift, because there is often spare capacity on that shift. This has been a notable success during nights when the weather was favourable.
[3] DEDAT and the Department of Agriculture are closely engaged on interventions to improve port efficiency. Joint steering committees have been established to manage projects such as data integration on exports of different agricultural commodities. This is being done with organised representatives, such as the Fresh Produce Export Forum. The information is being used to motivate the need for increased operational capacity in the container terminals. I was recently invited to visit one of the largest pome fruit packhouses in the Western Cape. The visit included a meeting about collaborative interventions to improve container terminal efficiency.
[4] While the Western Cape Government has no formal jurisdiction over the Port of Cape Town, due to the importance of the port to the economy of the Western Cape, DEDAT continues to collaborate with all stakeholders across the value chain to improve operation capacity and efficiency at the port. In order to process any additional workload, terminal design and construction augmentation will be required if additional cargo that may be rerouted from Durban will exceed 100,000 containers per year on a consistent basis. This augmentation is already provided for in the Port Masterplan but will take several years to complete. In the event that the rerouted cargo will be less than 100,000 containers and for a short term only, then options can be explored with the different operating divisions of Transnet and with shipping lines to utilise additional berths in Cape Town with vessels that have their own cranes.
