In July the Minister of Transport committed to achieving an hourly crane efficiency of 30 moves an hour over the next four years. Given the release of the annual Container Port Performance Index this week and the continued low ranking of South Africa’s terminals, we have to ask ourselves: is this good enough?

TANZANIA: The newly commissioned car carrier, the Grande Shanghai, docked at the Port of Dar es Salaam this past week marking the launch of a new East Asia–East Africa service after departing from the port of Taicang, China.

SOUTH AFRICA: It took two years to curate, but the stunning coffee table book on the country’s supertugs is a fitting testimony to South Africa’s maritime heritage, which saw the institutionalisation of the world’s most powerful tugs that became household names as they responded to incidents at sea across the globe.

“A sustainable ocean economy cannot be achieved without justice, inclusion and resilience,” Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dr Dion George told an international audience at the High-Level Ocean of the Future Meeting held in New York, USA.  

LIBERIA: Having announced a five-year strategic plan to revitalise the country’s oil and gas sector last month, separate announcements over the last week revealed two separate deals in the offshore licence space as Liberia confirms the first upstream petroleum agreements in more than 10 years.

SOUTH AFRICA: After the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) appointed a transaction advisor to validate the Island View Precinct Strategy and Implementation Plan in November last year, the Minister of Transport has now instructed the authority to simply renew all existing leases and given the Central Energy Fund (CEF) permission to build and operate a new Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) in the Port of Durban.

Among four countries to deposit their instruments of acceptance this week, Kenya helped tip the scale to see the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies to enter into force.

SOUTH AFRICA: Despite claiming a leading position as a supplier of boats and yachts to the international market, South Africa has not been able to drive a vibrant domestic boating culture to support further growth in local boat building.