Cape Town’s port has been officially ranked as the worst-performing port in the world, according to the global Container Port Performance Index. Experts in the fruit industry said this ranking is causing concern because it damages South Africa’s reputation as a country that exports goods.
The index, developed by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence, ranks all the ports worldwide based on their performance. What is worse, it is not just Cape Town. All four of South Africa’s container ports are ranked poorly on this index, with Cape Town being the lowest at 405th place out of 405 ports listed.
According to Roelf Pienaar, managing director of Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing, they are extremely worried about the situation, which should be considered a significant barrier to trade.
“An efficient and resilient port is key to the success of our industry,” Pienaar remarked, adding that the company is only about halfway through the current season’s exports.
Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing is the largest apple and pear exporter in South Africa, accounting for about 20% of national exports.
Fruit industry faces stiff competition
According to industry body Hortgro’s estimates, the export apple and pear crop will increase by 6% and 5% this year, respectively. The majority of the fruit is supposed to leave the country through the port of Cape Town but due to the logistical challenges, costly alternatives, such as transporting fruit via road to Qgeberha and exporting from there, are implemented.
Chris Knoetze, managing director of Link Supply Chain Management, a logistics company co-owned by Tru-Cape, pointed out that the South African fruit industry faces stiff competition from Chile. The country’s prominent exporting ports, San Antonio and Valparaiso, improved their positions on the index (San Antonio from 253 to 110 and Valparaiso from 188 to 151).
“Productive ports attract more vessels, leading to increased shipping capacity, possibly lower shipping fees, and more shipping options,” said Knoetze.
“It also ensures a constant flow of products to the market, putting the Chileans in a more competitive position. To improve our international competitiveness, it is crucial to sort out the crisis in our ports.”
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Long-term consistency
While Knoetze is not surprised about the port of Cape Town’s position at the very bottom of the index, he pointed out that the index is based on 2023 data.
“All other South African ports moved down on the index, indicating that the problem lies with Transnet; however, during the past six to eight months, some constructive staff changes occurred at Transnet, and a detailed terminal recovery plan was put into action.”
He noted that there have been some positives happening over the past six months at the port of Cape Town. “Transnet focuses on the right things, but it will probably be another six to twelve months before productivity increases.”
Meanwhile, Pienaar believes that to determine whether there is a real improvement at the port, gross crane moves per crane hour should be applied as a productivity measure.
“Measuring the average number of completed container movements per hour is the only way to know if things are improving in the port of Cape Town, as it influences the turnaround time for both trucks and ships. For the past three months, this figure has remained stagnant at only about 40% of what was achieved in 2011,” Pienaar said.
“While we recognise the improvements at the port, we remain concerned about productivity not increasing.”
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