Severe November wind blamed for worst Cape Town port performance in five years

November was the Port of Cape Town’s worst month for five years in terms of lost operation – equivalent to16 full days of downtime, due largely to severe wind.  

The port recorded 387 hours of closure, with the closest comparable month being November last year (2024) which saw 272 hours of downtime, according to figures released this week by the Cape Town Port Liaison Forum. 

“Year to date, the port has accumulated 2019 closure hours, the equivalent of 84 full days, compared with 69 days over the same period in 2024,” PLF chairman Terry Gale said in response to Cape Chamber queries.  

The wind disruption impacted fruit exports, notably grapes and stone fruit which in some cases had to be rerouted via other ports. Fruitnet, a global fruit online news service, reDelena Engelbrecht, CEO of Cape Town–based logistics company GoGlobal, said the situation has escalated to the point where exporters had to rely on three separate ports just to keep fruit moving.

“This week’s vessel left around 350 containers behind in Cape Town because it couldn’t finish loading,” Engelbrecht told Fruitnet late last week.  

Port downtime featured prominently at last week’s monthly PLF meeting, attended by all the Port’s key stakeholders. Cape Town Container Terminal was only fully operational for one day during the week of 17 – 23rd November, and windbound for 130 hours, Gale said. “The previous week CTCT worked for two full days, and intermittently on two days, the rest of the week was windbound.”

Gale said port performance was likely to improve with delivery of new rubber-tyred gantries which have an anti-sway mechanism allowing them to operate in wind speeds of over 100kmph. Only nine new RTGs were operational during November, but another nine were due to come onstream this past Sunday.  

TNPA is actively trying to mitigate the impact of the wind, which also affects drydock operations.  Mitigation measures include new hydraulic shore tension units which allow for safer berthing.