Will more automation solve Cape Town’s port problems?

This story was produced by our colleagues at the BBC.

Cape Town’s port is essential to South Africa’s agricultural sector — with around 55% of fresh produce and as much as 80% of fruit being exported from the dock. As crops are perishable, delays can mean a loss of quality and value.

But farmers and other import and export businesses have faced backlogs and inefficiency in recent years. The issues are so pervasive that the World Bank ranked the Port of Cape Town last out of more than 400 global docks in its 2023 Container Port Performance Index.

While automation is a sticking point between dockworkers and employers at East and Gulf Coast ports in the United States, some experts think it could be key to improving the situation in Cape Town.

Transnet, the state-owned company that runs South Africa’s ports, disputes the World Bank’s assessment and has told fruit exporters they’ll receive an improved service during the upcoming export period for pears, apples, peaches and plums.

Barbara Creecy, South Africa’s Minister of Transport, is also confident that the arrival of much-needed new additions like reach stackers, container haulers and rubber-tired gantries will improve the situation.

“Since the last season, this port has acquired 75 new pieces of equipment, and this equipment is helping us with the stacking of containers, with the loading and unloading of ships,” she said.

Aging equipment and breakdowns have been among the problems at the port, with older machinery unable to withstand strong windy conditions that can hit the city early in the year.

A report by the Western Cape provincial government shows that last year the terminal handled just under 700,000 TEUs, the TEU being a basic 20-foot shipping container. That figure was down 12.5% from just under 800,000 in 2019. Capital expenditure also dropped significantly from just over $14 million in 2011 to $4 million last year.

Some experts believe automation is one of the ways in which the port operation could be made more efficient.

“When it comes to digital transformation in South Africa’s port system I think we are quite far advanced but there is still work to be done,” said Captain Naresh Sewnath, senior manager of pilotage and vessel traffic services at the Transnet National Port Authority.

“We wanted a system to be customized to the way we operate in South Africa — the processes we have, regulations and so on that have to be complied with — and this is how we learn certain things but also have to localize certain things,” he said.

Sewnath said that, as a state-owned entity, they are working with the private sector to expedite their turnaround strategy.

“There is private-sector involvement in most of the things that we do,” he explained. “With collaboration going forward, there will be more involvement as well when it comes to technology and transformation in that space.”

Trade unions are unhappy about proposed private sector involvement and fear automation could result in job losses. But Colleen Jacka, founding editor of Maritime Review Africa magazine, thinks greater efficiency in the ports should improve exports, boost the agricultural sector and create jobs elsewhere.

“It is clear that one has to start weighing up the job losses outside of the port that result from escalating inefficiencies within the port,” she said. “And if our exporting industries can be bolstered through better performing ports, perhaps they can also create job opportunities.”

With Cape Town’s port facing strong competition from more efficient sites in neighboring Namibia, Mozambique and Angola, Transnet’s turnaround strategy to improve efficiency at Cape Town’s container terminal needs to show quick results if it is to benefit the local economy.