South Africa’s busiest container terminal is still working through a backlog that has left ships waiting up to twelve days at anchor off Durban, months after a R10.5 billion private-sector deal was meant to speed the port up rather than slow it down.
The Durban Gateway Terminal (DGT), formerly known as Pier 2, handles close to half of the country’s containerised freight, and our own earlier coverage of Transnet recalling former workers to help clear the backlog traced the problem back to its early stages. Under an agreement that took effect at the start of 2026, the Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI) paid R10.5 billion for a 49% stake in the terminal, with state-owned Transnet retaining 51%. The deal followed a legal challenge from shipping line A.P. Moller-Maersk over the bidding process, which delayed the handover before it finally went ahead.
A system switch that cut volumes by a third
Cargo volumes fell by around 30% between 14 August and 10 September, compared with the previous four months, coinciding with DGT’s move to the Navis N4 terminal operating system. Transport Minister Barbara Creecy told ICTSI management in October that average vessel anchorage time had roughly doubled to nearly six days since the operator took over, and pressed the company to improve its public communication with customers, according to BusinessTech’s account of the meeting.
By late October there were signs of recovery. Waterside throughput rose about 9% in the week of 19 to 25 October, to 31,149 twenty-foot equivalent units, and DGT said the Navis N4 system had stabilised. But freight industry estimates reported by Daily Maverick suggest full recovery could take 12 to 18 months, pending new handling equipment, and that clearing the backlog within 30 days would require roughly 5,000 container moves a day, 47% more than DGT’s current target of 3,400.
Who is carrying the cost
Industry bodies say the uncertainty is being absorbed by the freight sector and, ultimately, by exporters and importers. Arend du Preez, chair of the South African Freight and Logistics Association, said Transnet had been “quiet” through the disruption and questioned whether ICTSI had been given a full picture of the terminal’s condition before the sale, while also warning that manufacturers were paying high costs for air freight as a workaround. Jacob van Rensburg of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders said the late-October improvement reflected stabilisation rather than a material reduction in the vessel queue.
The knock-on effects are reaching other ports. The Cape Chamber of Commerce told BusinessTech that ships have been bypassing Durban, adding pressure to Cape Town’s berths and equipment allocation, even as that port’s own performance has recently improved.
Government says recovery is under way
Addressing the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s 170th anniversary gala, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Durban remained the busiest container port in sub-Saharan Africa and had been named the world’s most improved port in a World Bank and S&P Global index. He said the government “will continue to monitor the situation closely,” and that Transnet is procuring additional security for the central rail corridor feeding the port, according to the SAnews report on the speech. He added that further expansion would need coordinated action between Transnet and the eThekwini municipality.
Transnet says it does not directly control DGT’s day-to-day operations, that the terminal’s condition was disclosed to ICTSI ahead of the sale, and that a recovery plan and performance framework are being implemented under the concession agreement. ICTSI, for its part, has told Daily Maverick that Transnet handed over a system already in difficulty, and that it is now managing both the technical transition and frustrated customers. DGT’s six-month transitional period has been extended by a further six months, to December, and the terminal has said it will roll out a new digital truck-booking platform, though no date has been set.
For now, exporters moving goods through Durban are left weighing the promise of a faster, better-capitalised terminal: R737 million is earmarked to lift capacity to 2.8 million TEUs by 2030, against the immediate reality of longer queues and higher costs while the system beds in.
What we could not confirm
- The exact scale of financial losses to exporters and freight forwarders from the anchorage delays has not been independently quantified.
- Unverified claims about the physical condition or maintenance of the pier structure itself are circulating in the freight industry but are not confirmed in any source used here.
- A precise date for the rollout of DGT’s planned digital truck-booking platform, Navigate, has not been announced.
- Whether the alleged Transnet procurement irregularity referred to Durban’s Serious Corruption Investigation unit in August is connected to DGT’s operational problems has not been established.
