The Durban Container Terminal’s Pier 1 had handled its highest annual volumes yet in the face of several challenges, Transnet Port Terminals said in a statement on Friday.
The terminal had moved 689 246 twenty foot equivalent units (TEU) at the end of the 2021/2022 financial year ended in March.
It said Pier 1 was operating at 98 percent capacity with current capacity creation plans exploring the acquisition of land in the Bayhead vicinity to accommodate the overflow.
Transnet Port Terminals acting managing executive Kwazi Mabaso said, “The movement of containers in Durban is a story of employee resilience worth noting if you consider the plunge productivity took in the last financial year owing to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) unrest as well as the disruption to Transnet operating systems as a result of the cyberattack”.
He said the focus on efficiency enhancers like reducing safety incidents, focusing on vessel interventions, multi-skilling employees to operate different lifting equipment and training planners on best international practices contributed to the results.
“While Pier 1’s month on month performance was consistent with actual volumes realized always exceeding the budget, the introduction of a new employee incentive scheme towards the end of the financial year boosted performance,” said Mabaso.
Transnet Port Terminals said the terminal had also started the automatic capturing and tracking of vessel delays on the Navis container management system as a way of improving efficiencies. This would sharpen focus as the country’s citrus season begins in KZN and the Eastern Cape next month. - [email protected]
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