No immediate fertiliser shortages due to harbour crisis

23 November 2023

Liana Mocke

Queues of ships at Durban harbour have raised concerns about shortages of imported products, such as fertiliser. But advance planning has ensured the availability of fertiliser – in the short term at least.

Durban harbour handles 40% of South Africa’s port traffic and can load up to six vessels at a time, but queues of ships are causing average delays of nine days. 

At the harbour’s quay 2, which normally handles 3 300 containers a day, efficiency has decreased to 2 500 a day over the past four weeks. Several vessels are therefore bypassing South African ports, hoping to return later with cargoes.

South Africa imports over 80% of its fertiliser, and although there are concerns that the harbour crisis could lead to shortages, Corné Louw, senior economist at Grain SA, says grain producers can sleep peacefully for now.

Good planning, discussions with stakeholders and collaboration meant that by the end of September, 2% more fertiliser had been imported than at the same time last year, he says.

The picture is brighter than in July, when imports were 44% lower than a year earlier. By the end of July, fertiliser imports were 439 192 tons compared to 787 720 tons at the end of July 2022. The backlog has since been eliminated, with 356 796 tons imported in September compared to the 251 533 tons in September 2022.

Another factor that played a role was fertiliser price trends, says Louw. Prices trended lower since June 2022 and reversed in July this year. Like farmers, fertiliser importers waited for prices to turn before making purchases. This happened in July and August.

“Thanks to a dynamic input industry, the industry managed to quickly act to fill the shortages and make plans to get fertiliser in hand as soon as possible for planting,” says Louw. 

“Grain SA was one of the parties involved in working with the harbour and ships to prioritise the handling of fertiliser shipments as it is essential for food security.”

Although it took a bit of arm-twisting, cooperation ultimately ensured the shipments were landed. “In our unique South African way, we were able to achieve this.

“At the moment, we are not too concerned about the availability of fertiliser, but it is a concern overall. There may be certain products that struggle to come in, such as some potassium products.

“As producers, we can be grateful for a well-functioning, dynamic and sophisticated input value chain in South Africa. This is not necessarily the case in other African countries.” 

Louw warns, however, that although plans have been made to increase imports, the problem at ports will not simply disappear.

Cost of doing business keeps rising

While South Africa’s growth policies have the right solutions for the logistical crisis, he says they must still be applied. “So we can continue to address and solve crises and problems in the short term, but in the long term we still have many logistical problems at the ports.”

Louw says says port inefficiency is driving up the cost of doing business, as seen with international shipping companies such as Maersk and MSC imposing additional waiting tariffs on certain ships calling at South African ports from December. 

“It is becoming increasingly expensive for these companies to send cargoes to and from South Africa. Ultimately, these rising costs are passed on to the producer and the consumer,” says Louw.

Transnet confirmed to Landbouweekblad that cargo owners will pay these tariffs.

Transnet’s Durban boss responds 

Earle Peters, Transnet’s manager of Durban terminals, says the harbour’s busy nature is one of the reasons for the delays. However, he also acknowledges that there has been insufficient investment in harbour equipment over the past decade. Transnet has an investment backlog of R50 billion at ports and in the railway network.

Peters says changes in weather patterns have also had a significant adverse effect on recent harbour operations. “October had a lot of wind and rain, causing 159 lost operating hours and causing more than 20 ships to wait outside the harbour, with delays for some ships up to 18 hours.”

Some of the equipment at the harbour has been part of the system for 15 to 20 years and is no longer able to handle the weather conditions, he says.