World Bank ranks Port of Cape Town lower than all African ports
The World Bank has ranked the Port of Cape Town at 347 out of 351 in its assessment of global container performance.
CAPE TOWN, May 26 (ANA) – The World Bank has ranked the Port of Cape Town at 347 out of 351 in its assessment of global container performance.
In a statement released on Wednesday, MEC for Finance and Economic Opportunities David Maynier said this ranking was lower than all other ports in Africa.
The Port of Cape Town was ranked less efficient than those of Djibouti, Abidjan, Beira, Maputo, Walvis Bay, Dar es Salaam and Mombasa.
“While Cape Town is listed as the top performing port in South Africa, this is no indication of success as all of South Africa’s container ports, including Durban, Gqeberha and Ngqura, dominate the lower end of the Container Port Performance Index 2020 – a sad reflection of competitiveness of ports in South Africa,” Maynier said.
He said that, while the Port of Cape Town is a major economic gateway for Cape Town, the Western Cape and South Africa, as it is an important channel for exports and imports, it continues to face severe congestion as a result of ageing infrastructure and equipment along with staff shortages and weather disruptions.
“The result is that vessels have been bypassing the Port of Cape Town or have been waiting up to seven days before they can berth, which impacts businesses across the entire port logistics supply chain who experience significant delays and financial losses.
“In the end, our terminals at the Port of Cape Town are simply unable to service the volume of cargo that can potentially flow through Cape Town,” Maynier said.
He said it was for this reason that the Port Task Team was established and had brought together stakeholders from across the port logistics value chain to find solutions to the challenges facing the Port of Cape Town.
While the task team has had a number of successes, Maynier said improving the port’s efficiency would ultimately require an intervention by the national government, and he reiterated his call on President Cyril Ramaphosa to urgently visit the Port of Cape Town.
“Growing exports, primarily through trade promotion and the removal of obstacles to exports, is a critical lever in our strategy to grow the economy and create jobs in the Western Cape.
“As the fifth largest African exporter of agricultural goods and the exporter of 40% of South Africa’s agriculture and agri-processing products, we are starting from a strong position,” Maynier said.
He said that even during 2020, which was a challenging year, agricultural exports saw significant growth, increasing by 23.8% to the value of R77.14 billion (US$5.5 billion).
However, Maynier said to become the most competitive region in Africa, it needed the most competitive port.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher
