South Africa’s ports crisis needs more attention

Western Cape fruit farmers have every reason to be worried after Cape Town’s port was ranked the worst port by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Cape Town was ranked 405 out of 405 ports, according to the global Container Port Performance Index. Our other ports didn’t fare too much better with Ngqura in Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape at 404, Durban at 398 and Gqeberha 391 on the index.

ALSO READ: Cape Town port ranked the worst in the world

More than 182 000 vessel calls, 238.2 million moves and about 381 million twenty-foot equivalents in 2023 was taken into consideration.

Chris Knoetze, managing director of Link Supply Chain Management, a logistics company co-owned by Tru-Cape, said: “To improve our international competitiveness, it is crucial to sort out the crisis in our ports.”

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Transnet insists the report is flawed. However, the proof is in the pudding and delays are still costing millions daily, despite many improvements made since the data was collected last year to alleviate congestion and backlogs.

More needs to be done.