The latest World Bank Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) report, which ranks several South African ports poorly, covers the crisis-ridden period of 2023 and does not account for the corrective actions implemented since Transnet came under new management as part of a recovery and transformation strategy, according to Dr. Juanita Maree, CEO of the Southern African Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF).

“To contextualize, this was a period at the height of the crisis,” Maree explains. “The timing of its release unjustifiably tarnishes today’s developments, casting doubt on the efficacy of robust corrective action underway and the hard work of the recovery teams and the leadership of the National Logistics Crisis Committee – a strong strategic public-private consultative initiative by government that serves as the anchor.”

Maree acknowledges that the report does raise valid points and should not be dismissed outright. Instead, it should be used constructively to enhance container port performance. She emphasizes that the CPPI ranks ports rather than diagnosing specific areas for improvement, and its rank aggregation methodology is an overly simplified approach to assessing a complex system.

“Moreover, the report uses rank aggregation, combining multiple rankings into a single ranking,” Maree notes. “This is a significant problem arising in many areas, and it is an overly simplified approach to providing a single ranking of a complex system that is a port call.”

The World Bank admits that imputed values are used when data on port calls and vessel call sizes are missing, which can distort the performance assessment across different call-size groups. This unidimensional view of port performance attempts to evaluate the system and provide a single index to indicate overall performance, but it falls short of capturing the full picture.

Despite these methodological critiques, SAAFF acknowledges that the report highlights South Africa’s loss of time at outer anchorages, a point accepted by both the association and Transnet. However, using a vessel’s stay duration as the sole measure of port performance without considering factors like throughput and handling rates limits the accuracy of these comparisons.

“The World Bank concedes that it is impossible to see from the data whether waiting time is voluntary or forced, and that it is difficult to find a suitable level at which to discount waiting time in this scenario,” Maree adds. “We must, therefore, conclude that South African ports were excessively penalized for time lost at anchorage.”

A Different Narrative

When examining port performance based on time and efficiency, the gross crane moves per hour (GCH) at Durban Pier 1 and Pier 2 were around 15.8 and 16.4 moves per hour, respectively. While this is 33% and 30% below the global average, it is not the worst globally. Maree points out that some terminals have reached 32 GCH in isolated cases, nearing global best practices.

“So, one might argue that a container terminal capable of sometimes achieving global best practices can certainly not be considered the worst in the world,” she states. “But, at the same time, South African port users come from a background where rates of around 25 were relatively common in the not-too-distant past, and this is what makes the current performance so worrying.”

Maree also highlights that the report does not consider the volume or frequency of schedules. For example, regional ports included in the study, such as the Port of Maputo, Port of Nacala, and Port Sudan, had significantly fewer vessel calls and serviced smaller vessel sizes compared to Cape Town and Durban, making direct comparisons invalid.

According to the World Bank’s data, vessel dwell time at Durban was 83.2 hours at Pier 2 and 67.4 hours at Pier 1, compared to a global average of 40.5 hours. While this indicates excessive time spent at South African ports, it is not the worst in the world.

The critical need now is for South Africa’s port system to incorporate specialization and investment through private-sector participation, fostering competition between ports and terminals, Maree notes.

“In our current landscape, whatever transpires politically is true for our logistics network,” she says. “It is incumbent upon us to create a new dawn where the focus is on utilizing trade, transport, and logistics as a critical driver for economic growth and development, especially for an open economy such as South Africa, at the dawn of a new multi-dimensional democracy.”