Andre Klynsmith

Ports and Terminals

Durban Is the World's Most Improved Port — and Cape Town Is the Warning

The Port of Durban has been named the world's most improved container port in the latest World Bank and S&P Global Container Port Performance Index — even as Cape Town was ranked among the worst. For SADC operators, the message is not "South African ports are fixed." It is that the Transnet recovery is real but uneven, and corridor choices now have to be made port by port.

Ports and Terminals

25 July 2026 • 4 min read

Durban climbed hundreds of places in a single year to become the world's most improved port. Cape Town went the other way. The same national operator, two very different results — and a lesson in how fragile a port recovery still is.

A Turnaround Worth Reading Carefully

Two years ago Durban was a byword for congestion, with vessels queueing offshore for days and cargo owners across the region absorbing the cost. In the newest global performance ranking, released in mid-2026, the same terminal is the most improved in the world, its score jumping by several hundred points on the strength of shorter vessel waiting times, new equipment, greater private-sector participation and a staff incentive scheme.

Transnet also reported that its ports handled more than 300 million tonnes in the 2025/26 financial year — its strongest showing in 15 years. The structural change behind the numbers is a 25-year concession awarded to International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) to modernise Durban Container Terminal Pier 2, with capacity targeted to rise from 2 million to 2.8 million TEUs.

Cape Town Is the Cautionary Half of the Story

The same index that celebrated Durban placed Cape Town near the bottom of the global table. Transnet has responded by seeking a private partner to run and upgrade the Cape Town Container Terminal, echoing the ICTSI model that helped Durban. But that process is only beginning, which means the two gateways are on very different timelines through the rest of 2026.

For exporters this is not academic. Cape Town handles the bulk of the Western Cape's deciduous-fruit and reefer export peak, and delays there ripple straight into landed cost and shelf life. Durban's improvement, meanwhile, matters to importers and to the many Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia-bound consignments that route inland from KwaZulu-Natal.

Recovery Is a Direction, Not a Destination

The common thread is private participation. Durban's leap did not come from a single fix; it came from concessioning the main terminal, buying handling equipment and rewarding performance. Where that recipe has been applied, the numbers moved. Where it has not yet been applied — Cape Town — the port still lags. The lesson for the region is that South African port performance is now a terminal-by-terminal question, not a national one.

It also underlines why corridor diversification through Walvis Bay, Maputo, Beira and Nacala remains a live strategy rather than a hedge that can now be quietly dropped. A most-improved ranking is encouraging, but a single bad season could dent it, and cargo owners who kept an alternative routing costed and ready are the ones best insulated either way.

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