Cape Traffic Doubles as Hormuz Stays Shut, but South Africa Ports Miss the Windfall

Shipping traffic around southern Africa has doubled since the Strait of Hormuz closed, OilPrice reported on September 28. Almost none of that traffic stopped at a port.

South African ports saw no meaningful surge in port calls, bunkering, or maritime services despite the volume. Cape Town and Durban sit near the bottom of the World Bank's global container-port performance rankings, as both OilPrice and an ISS Pretoria analysis published the same day noted. Diverted vessels transit the waters without calling.

Container volumes across South African ports fell 21% for the week of September 14-20, to 72,837 TEUs from 91,670 the previous week, according to the Southern African Association of Freight Forwarders via Engineering News. Durban's throughput fell 39% that week, with 33 vessels in queue and an average anchorage wait of 214 hours.

Each Cape rerouting adds roughly 5,000 miles, more than two weeks, and over $1 million in fuel per voyage, according to OilPrice. The vessels are moving. They have reasons not to stop.

ISS Pretoria analyst Timothy Walker called the result a paradox: the region sits at the center of a global rerouting, yet earns little from the vessels using its waters.

The rerouting dates to the Strait of Hormuz closures triggered by attacks, including the September 23 strikes that hit three vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, among them Cape Dao.