{"id":4265,"date":"2024-04-19T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portstrategy.nfdtesting.uk\/greenport\/2024\/04\/19\/apmt-durban-action-sparks-motivation-questions\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T14:09:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:09:46","slug":"apmt-durban-action-sparks-motivation-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/news\/concessions-investments\/apmt-durban-action-sparks-motivation-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"APMT Durban action sparks motivation questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interestingly, the story carried by Business Day,<\/em> which features direct quotes from APMT, reflects the message from APMT that it is doing this for the good of the country overall, as part of its stated mission to, \u201cImprove life for all by integrating the world.\u201d It even says, \u201c\u2026we believe we would successfully deliver this in Durban.\u201d Furthermore, the Business Day story, quotes APMT as saying: \u201cThis challenge will not delay the process unnecessarily or to cause any disruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

On top of these remarks that suggest APMT\u2019s motives in bringing its legal challenge are quite altruistic it further states that it will \u201c\u2026ensure that the process is lawful.\u201d Another statement pitched to occupy the higher ground.<\/p>\n

There are, however, many that might take a rather different view of APMT\u2019s motives.<\/p>\n

The bid structure is understood to have been a two-part one with points awarded across both elements \u2013 the financial part and the technical submission. ICTSI won which clearly came as something of a shock to APMT. There was plainly an expectation that it had done enough to win. It had the motivation to bid high, getting a foot in the door with DCT pier 2, the jewel in the crown of Transnet\u2019s container terminal portfolio handling over 70 per cent of Durban\u2019s port traffic, would have enabled APMT, together with its sister liner company Maersk, to exercise a lot of influence over South Africa\u2019s supply chains as a whole.<\/p>\n

APMT might cite its latest branding as an integrator in this respect but there will certainly be others who see its objective in a different light, \u201ccontrol\u201d being a key factor.<\/p>\n

Looking back down the years it can be seen that Maersk, APMT\u2019s sister company, has enjoyed a strong position in Durban accounting for over 25 per cent of throughput with its current operating partner MSC holding an even stronger position nearer to 40 per cent. Furthermore, when it comes to the important reefer trade it is well known that their respective market shares are higher, possibly accounting for up to 80 per cent on a combined basis.<\/p>\n

One of the underlying reasons for Maersk being able to maintain a strong market position can be seen to be quay access. Together with MSC it accounts for the lion\u2019s share of berthing capacity and the only route out of this situation is widely acknowledged to be productivity improvements \u2013 faster vessel turnaround offers more available capacity, in turn allowing more access by other liner operators. A more competitive situation, which has long been the objective of parties such as South Africa\u2019s influential Citrus Growers Association.<\/p>\n

While not cited by APMT it is clear, given the presence of such a scenario, that there are very strong commercial reasons for APMT to attack the award to ICTSI of partnering with Transnet at DC pier 2. As one source put it: \u201ceven maintaining the status quo (nothing happening) will work well for them, loss of control is the fear factor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of April local newspapers in Durban including Business Day carried a story announcing a legal challenge by APM Terminals (APMT), part of the Maersk group, to the confirmed award by Transnet of the Durban Container Terminal (DCT) Pier 2 concession to International Container Terminal Services Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,16],"tags":[18,1571,1569,1068,1568,1103,1104,1570,1567],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-4265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-concessions-investments","tag-apm-terminals","tag-business-day","tag-durban","tag-durban-container-terminal","tag-durban-pier-2","tag-ictsi","tag-international-container-terminal-services-inc","tag-maersk-group","tag-transnet"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4267,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4265\/revisions\/4267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4265"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=4265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}