South Africa will invite applications for a concession to run the country’s busiest harbour, the Indian Ocean port of Durban, in the third quarter of this year, a senior minister said on Thursday.
Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe said the concessioning on the Durban port operations was being fast-tracked to address a capacity crunch that has seen shippers avoiding the port because of delays.
”Durban harbour is now unhappily classified as a congested port by all container shipping lines. Costs related to production in general and exporting in particular have risen sharply and undermined competitiveness,” he said.
The Container Lines Operators Forum threatened in February to impose a $75 surcharge on every container moved through Durban in a bid to recover losses caused by delays in the port.
The operators agreed to postpone the levy, but insisted they wanted to see concerted action from the government to improve efficiencies in all the country’s state-owned ports.
Operators in Cape Town said the Atlantic Ocean port had experienced delays of 48 to 72 hours this month as a surge in exports put pressure on the harbour’s storage and handling capacity.
Radebe said the port operators were restructuring tariffs and would have reduced them by 30% over three years from December 2001.
”This concessioning will be open to all interested players.
”Operating rights for pre-determined periods and subject to specific terms will be transferred shortly through lease and rental contracts, regular concession contracts and concession contracts where responsibility for development is transferred to the private sector,” he said. – Reuters