Andre Klynsmith

Ports and Terminals

382 755 TEUs: South Africa's Container Recovery Stalls While Vehicles and Bulk Keep Growing

South Africa's commercial ports handled 382 755 TEUs in August 2026, down 7% both on July and on August last year, according to Transnet National Ports Authority statistics analysed by the Southern African Association of Freight Forwarders. The country's container recovery has lost momentum just as the Cape route diversion that filled the horizon for three years begins to unwind.

Ports and Terminals

18 September 2026 • 4 min read

Containers fell. Vehicles rose 19%. Dry bulk and breakbulk both grew. That split is the real story in the August numbers, because it says the constraint is not South African demand and it is not the shipping lines. It is container handling capacity, in one place, on one terminal.

The August Numbers

Throughput of 382 755 TEUs compares with 411 056 TEUs in July. Landed containers fell 6% month on month to 201 008 TEUs and shipped containers fell 7% to 181 747 TEUs, so the decline hit imports and exports at almost the same rate. SAAFF attributed the slide to recent operational difficulties at the Durban Gateway Terminal and said the broader recovery of the port system remains uneven and fragile.

The longer view is less bleak. Container throughput for the first eight months of 2026 was still 4.9% higher than the same period last year. But August was 14% below the volume recorded in August 2019, which is the benchmark that matters if the question is whether the system has been repaired rather than merely stabilised.

Read the Cargo Split, Not the Headline

Performance across the other cargo categories diverged sharply. Dry bulk reached 14.73 million tonnes, up 2% year on year. Breakbulk rose 10% to 630 744 tonnes. Vehicles delivered the strongest result of all, up 19% year on year to 96 945 units, which is also 23% above the August 2019 figure. Liquid bulk was the other weak spot, down 10% year on year to 2.58 million tonnes and still 25% below its August 2019 level.

Total cargo excluding vehicles was broadly unchanged from August 2025 and 4% below the comparable 2019 level, while total bulk volumes for the year to date were 7.6% up on 2025. In other words, the bulk and automotive terminals are moving cargo. The container terminals are the bottleneck. That is a capacity and reliability problem inside a specific set of berths, not a signal that trade has gone quiet.

Bad Timing on the Sea Freight Side

The stall lands in the same month that carriers accelerated their return to the Suez Canal, shifting services off the Cape of Good Hope. South African ports never captured much of that diverted traffic, since almost all of it transited rather than called. But a container system that cannot hold a recovery in a calm month has very little margin for the next disruption, whether that is a swing in reefer volumes ahead of the citrus and deciduous seasons or a further routing change by the lines.

SAAFF put the challenge plainly: consolidate the operational recovery while accelerating the investment, reform and capacity improvements needed for sustainable port performance. For the freight operators who sit downstream, the near-term consequence is variance. When landed volumes drop 6% in a month because of one terminal, the trucks and depots that serve it absorb the gap in idle time and rescheduled collections.

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