Durban
The port of Durban (Photo: Tom Westcott)

Durban’s Pier 2, South Africa’s main container gateway, continues to be regularly beset by severe congestion and low port productivity levels. This depressing trend was due to be reversed by last year’s award of a 25-year operating licence to Filipino port operator ICTSI by South Africa’s ports owner Transnet, on the condition of a substantial investment in the facility.

However, a legal challenge against the award by Maersk subsidiary APM Terminals, over the way ICTSI calculated its solvency ratio, upheld by a Durban court, has left the project in limbo.

In an in-depth op-ed for South African newspaper Business Day, ICTSI’s regional head for Europe, the Middle East & Africa, Hans-Ole Madsen, claims Maersk’s objection is not only misplaced, but has distorted the concession process.

“Maersk has now convinced the court that there is enough uncertainty regarding this singular metric that the whole contract should be paused and reviewed. This move was carefully designed to mislead.

“To a lay person in South Africa, this sounds like not only did ICTSI lie about its solvency, but that it did not pass the one and only qualifying criteria, and that Transnet’s processes were not up to scrutiny,” he writes.

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