South Africa’s proposed Merchant Shipping Bill poses a serious threat to the country’s ocean freight supply chains, according to the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff), which warned of increased costs, delays, and reduced port efficiency.
The Merchant Shipping Bill was proposed by Parliament in May 2023 and is currently in its introductory stage of accepting stakeholder feedback. The bill seeks to cover the registration, permitting, and licensing of ships, the application of labour laws to seafarers to promote the safety of life at sea, and to regulate marine traffic, among other things.
One element that aims to accelerate the domestic shipping industry envisages the potential restriction of foreign-flagged deepsea vessels to a single South African port of call per voyage, to allow regional lines to serve domestic volumes.
However, Saaff said this would be “severely detrimental” to the South African logistics industry. It warned: “While the development of a national shipping capability is broadly supported, implementing a restrictive cabotage regime without understanding its full economic impact risks unintended consequences.”
It said containerised and automotive cargo rely heavily on scheduled multi-port calls for efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Bulk cargo, typically transported in single-port consignments, would be less affected.
One unintended consequence would be that shipping lines restricted to one port call would mainly opt for the main port of Durban.
Saaff warned: “Durban’s constrained capacity would be overwhelmed, relegating other ports to secondary feeder roles. This risks reversing recent progress achieved through collaborative platforms such as the NLCC [National Logistics Crisis Committee].”
It noted that the port of Durban handled 62% of the country’s container volumes and, “for the provisions in the bill to work, South Africa’s containerised system would need to up its container handling capabilities significantly”.
According to data for 2023, the gross container handling rate in Durban Pier 1 was around 15.8 moves an hour, and at Durban Pier 2 around 16.4 moves an hour – 33% and 30% below the global average.
“With Durban’s terminal capacity currently capped at around 3.3m teu, it is structurally incapable of absorbing such a volume increase without substantial congestion and delay,” said Saaff. “This would relegate other ports to secondary status, reduce network resilience, and drive up logistics costs across the board.”
Another consequence, it added, would be that South Africa’s perishables shippers, especially of citrus and deciduous fruit exports, would face substantial cost increases, delays, and reduced competitiveness due to the disrupted direct services.
“Perishable exports require the fastest possible direct service to destination. Utilising feeder services for deciduous fruit exports is not viable, except under exceptional circumstances,” explained Saaff.
It noted that, during the 2024/2025 deciduous fruit export season, 49,241 40ft containers were exported from Cape Town, and a loss of services from this port would mean these shippers could face reduced competition.
In its recommendation letter to the Portfolio Committee on Transport, Saaff identified international best practice being the US Jones Act, and urged that successful cabotage frameworks must similarly balance national objectives with supply chain efficiency — “something the current Merchant Shipping Bill fails to do”, it said.
“South Africa’s trade makes up around 64% of GDP, and is geographically distant from its main trade partners. Over 85% of South Africa’s trade by volume is carried by sea, making international shipping and port efficiency foundational to the country’s economic performance.
“Container logistics is not simply a support function but a core enabler of industrial development, food security, and export competitiveness. Consequently, changes to cabotage or shipping regulations must be weighed not only against maritime development goals, but also against the system-wide costs and risks for the country’s complex, interdependent logistics environment,” Saaff urged.
