Andre Klynsmith

Ports and Terminals

58 Hours and Still Last: Cape Town's Numbers Are Improving Faster Than Its Reputation

The Port of Cape Town's average ship turnaround time has fallen to 58 hours year-to-date in the 2026/27 financial year, down from 103 hours in 2023/24. It is one of the sharpest operational recoveries in the South African port system -- and the port still sits at the bottom of the global container port rankings.

PORTS AND TERMINALS

19 July 2026 • 5 min read

Cape Town has almost halved the time a vessel spends in port in three years. That is real, measurable progress. It is also a reminder that a port can improve substantially and remain uncompetitive, because the benchmark is not last year's performance -- it is Singapore, Tanger Med and Salalah.

What Actually Improved

The trend line is consistent rather than a single good quarter. Ship turnaround time -- the total hours a vessel spends from arrival to departure -- moved from 103 hours in 2023/24 to 83 hours in 2024/25, then to 74 hours in 2025/26, and is averaging 58 hours so far in 2026/27. Each step is a double-digit improvement on the one before it.

Anchorage waiting time has followed the same path, dropping from 127 hours in 2023/24 to around 79 hours in 2025/26. That figure matters commercially, because waiting at anchor is the portion of delay carriers most readily convert into congestion surcharges and schedule padding on the Southern African leg.

Why the Global Ranking Has Not Moved With It

Cape Town remained the worst-ranked port in the most recent global container port performance assessment despite these gains, while Durban was named the world's most improved container port. The two facts are not contradictory. Rankings measure berth-side productivity against a global field that is also improving, and they are compiled on a lag -- the 58-hour figure is newer than the ranking that judged the port.

Cape Town also carries structural handicaps that no equipment programme removes. Wind downtime remains the single largest disruptor of a working shift, the terminal handles a heavily seasonal reefer peak on top of ordinary container flow, and the port's layout constrains how much stacking area can be added. Four new hybrid straddle carriers worth R96 million became operational in July after operator training -- useful, but landside equipment does not stop the wind.

What Hauliers Should Measure Instead

Ship turnaround time is a shipping-line metric. It tells a haulier very little, because a truck's day is decided by gate queue, stack availability, booking-system reliability and how long a driver waits between the gate and the stack. A port can cut vessel time and still hold trucks for six hours. Operators serving Cape Town should be logging truck turnaround per terminal per shift and treating that record as a commercial asset -- either to claim a productivity gain or to keep charging for the wait.

For exporters in the Western Cape, the practical read is that Cape Town is becoming a more predictable gateway but has not yet become a fast one. Predictability is worth planning around: shorter, more reliable vessel cycles reduce the buffer stock and dwell time that inland shippers have been carrying. The ranking will catch up to the operating data eventually, or it will not -- either way the booking you make next month is priced off the queue you actually encounter.

About the Author
	Andre Klynsmith Entrepreneur & Technology Enthusiast Andre's expertise spans technology, blockchain, transport, and logistics -- with a passion for innovation and driving positive change across industries. info@laaimylorrie.com | laaimylorrie.com