Cape Town, South Africa's Largest Port, Was Blacklisted By Shipping Companies Because Of Serious Delays.

After being hit by a series of port congestion surcharges this month, South African shippers and freight forwarders lost direct flights to Cape Town this week as shipping companies Maersk and CMA CGM announced that they would cancel their connections to Cape Town because of longer waiting times at the country's ports.

 

Recently, Maersk told customers that it was restructuring its Asia-West / South Africa network, readjusted FEW6 routes between northern China and southwestern Africa, and two links at Cape Town were cancelled. 

 

Maersk said: "the updated FEW6 service will focus on major ports in South West Africa and will call at Crebi.

A major change in this service will be the removal of route coverage in Cape Town, reducing the transit time between ports in South West Africa and Asia to seven days. " 

       

The service is operated jointly with CMA CGM and COSCO, which are time charter companies, while shippers in Cape Town will receive a dedicated feeder service between Cape Town and Port Louis, the Mauritius transshipment hub.

       

The service is operated jointly with CMA CGM and COSCO Group. Hapag-Lloyd and OOCL are time charter companies, while shippers in Cape Town will receive a dedicated feeder service between Cape Town and Port Louis, the Mauritius transshipment hub. "this new service satisfies the continuous movement of goods between Port Louis and Cape Town. In Port Louis, Safari services will be used to connect to Asia. "

       

Safari service is also a route operated jointly by Maersk, CMA CGM and Cosco, and will update the port rotation of Shanghai-Ningbo Shekou-Tanjung-Pellepass Port-Louis Deban Port-Louis Tanjung-Pellepass Port.

       

Mike Walwyn, maritime director of the Southern African Freight Forwarders Association (SAAFF), said the new service structure could hit some of South Africa's key export industries.

       

"Crucially, these new timetables are introduced to enable shipping companies to maintain the integrity of their global timetables.

By using efficient ports such as Port Louis as hubs, they can use regional vessels to transfer South African goods without interfering with the schedule of trunk vessels. "

       

"Obviously, this will extend the shipping time and increase the cost of the shipper."

       

In addition to making our port a secondary port, it could also have a serious impact on some key industries.

For example, we are about to enter the peak period of fruit exports, and the shelf life is critical, so the extended sailing time may have a significant negative impact on the price eventually realized, not to mention negative cash flow. "

       

In addition, the reduction of services is accompanied by an increase in costs.

       

This month, MSC announced a port congestion surcharge of $210 per teu for all South African ports from December 3rd, while Herbrot will introduce a similar port congestion surcharge on December 8th.

       

"You rarely hear me accept more revenue-generating attempts from shipping companies, but in this case, they have a reason, because the productivity and overall condition of our port has fallen to the level of inevitable congestion charges," Walwyn said.

     

It is understood that in response to the crisis sweeping South Africa's state-owned port and rail freight operator Transet, the government set up the National Logistics crisis Committee, of which SAAFF is a member.

       

"You will understand that our industry and others are in urgent and critical negotiations with the government to correct the situation and restore our port to previous productivity levels, but as you know, this is not going to happen overnight," Walwyn explained.

 

The updated route rotation is as follows:

 

The FEW1 service will stop and coverage will be transferred to the FEW3 service

 

FEW2 route:

Singapore - Tanjung Pelepas (Malaysia) - Lome (Togo) - Apapa (Nigeria) - Onne (Nigeria) - Cotonou (Benin) - Singapore

 

FEW3 route:

Qingdao (China) – Kwangyang (South Korea) – Shanghai (China) – Ningbo (China) – Shekou (China) – Nansha (China) – Singapore (Asia) – Tanjung Pelepas (Malaysia)– Tema (Ghana) – Lekki (Nigeria) – Abidjan (Ivory Coast) – Pointe Noire (Congo) – Colombo (Sri Lanka) – Singapore (Asia) – Xiamen (China) – Qingdao (China)

 

 

FEW6 route: cancel the connection to Cape Town.

Qingdao (China) – Shanghai (China) – Ningbo (China) – Nansha (China) – Tanjung Pelepas (Malaysia) – Singapore (Asia) – Pointe Noire (Congo) – Kribi (Cameroon) – Luanda (Angola) – Walvis Bay (Namibia) – Singapore (Asia) – Qingdao (China)

 

Newly opened Cape Town Express route:

Port Louis (Maurice) – Cape Town (South Africa) – Port Louis (Maurice)