Vessel congestion at the Port of Durban container terminals
Vessel congestion at the Port of Durban container terminals. The disruption ran from 2023-10-01 (October 2023) to 2024-01-01 (January 2024), affecting Durban. No measured effect is published for this event; the effect section explains why.
Key facts
- Started
- 2023-10-01 (October 2023)
- Ended
- 2024-01-01 (January 2024)
- Status
- ended
- Severity
- 3 Significant
- Scope
- port
- Chokepoints
- None
- Ports
- Durban
- Lanes
- None
- Countries
- South Africa
- Confidence
- high: The causes, the scale of the backlog and the recovery plan come from a dated Transnet media statement, with consistent reporting of vessel counts and waiting times in three outlets.
- First reported
- 2023-11-20 (20 November 2023)
- Severity basis: Port level disruption well beyond seven days; Transnet said in November 2023 that clearing the container backlog would take up to seven weeks at Pier 1 and 15 weeks at Pier 2.
What happened
Ships queued at the Port of Durban in the closing months of 2023, with the backlog described publicly from 2023-11-20 (20 November 2023), when Transnet held a media briefing on delays at its ports. Transnet said container handling at Pier 2 had fallen from about 3,300 to about 2,500 containers a day over the preceding four weeks because of weather and equipment problems, and set out an intervention plan. Reporting at the time counted more than 60 vessels off the port. Transnet said clearing the backlog would take up to seven weeks at Pier 1 and 15 weeks at Pier 2. By early January 2024 the queue had fallen to about five vessels at anchor, which Transnet attributed to holiday period staffing and faster access to spare parts.
Measured effect
No measured effect is published for this event. The disruption was too small or too imprecisely dated to separate from normal variation in a port-level daily series.
The episode has no single dated start. It is recorded at month precision from October 2023, which is coarser than the daily windows the effect engine needs, so no port call series is nominated for measurement.
Timeline
- Container handling at Durban Pier 2 slows through October, which Transnet later attributes to weather losses and equipment availability, and the queue of waiting ships grows. [s1] [s3]
- Transnet says at a media briefing that it is running urgent interventions at Durban, blames adverse weather and equipment availability against a background of underinvestment, and expects clearance to take up to seven weeks at Pier 1 and 15 weeks at Pier 2. [s1] [s2] [s3]
- Reporting counts more than 60 vessels off the port, with average berthing delays of about 18 days and October weather losses of 159 operating hours. [s2] [s3]
- Transnet reports the queue down to about five vessels at anchor from about 20 in November, with more than 33,000 twenty foot equivalent units still waiting off Durban on 2023-12-29. [s4]
Cause
Transnet attributed the delays to adverse weather and to equipment availability, and said the congestion followed years of underinvestment in equipment and its maintenance, with replacement lead times of 12 to 18 months. Attributed by: Transnet. [s1]
Resolution
2024-01-03 (3 January 2024): The vessel queue fell through December 2023 and into early January 2024, when Transnet reported about five ships at anchor against about 20 in November. Transnet credited holiday period staffing and faster access to spare parts, alongside the recovery plan set out in November. [s4]
Corrections
No corrections to this record as of 2026-09-16 (16 September 2026).
Sources
- [s1] Transnet, Transnet fully focused on dealing with delays at ports, published 2023-11-20 (20 November 2023), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (official)
- [s2] The Maritime Executive, Durban Warns It Could Take 15 Weeks to Clear Backlog as 60 Ships Wait, published 2023-11-20 (20 November 2023), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (press)
- [s3] Engineering News, No 'overnight' solution to vessel congestion at Durban container terminal, published 2023-11-20 (20 November 2023), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (press)
- [s4] Moneyweb, Durban container port making headway in clearing backlog of vessels, published 2024-01-03 (3 January 2024), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (press)