Ships Crowd South Africa’s Eastern Cape as Hormuz Closure Pushes Cape Route to Record and

Ship traffic off South Africa's Eastern Cape coast jumped sharply on 12 September. MarineRadar tracked 22 times the usual ship count near St Francis Bay and 16 times the usual number 120 kilometres off Gqeberha. Eastern Cape waters as a whole rose 7.7-fold in 24 hours, with Durban at 3.3 times its recent average.

The Strait of Hormuz is the main driver. Anadolu Agency reported this week that traffic through Hormuz has fallen about 90 per cent from pre-crisis levels, and global shipping lines have shifted to the longer Cape of Good Hope route. South Africa's eastern coastline sits directly on that detour.

At Durban, the additional traffic is running into an already stressed port. Freight News reported that the port's ship turnaround time reached its highest point of 2026. Separately, Freight News and the freight forwarding community have flagged the Durban Gateway Terminal as being in crisis.

Two collisions in early September made things worse. A supramax bulk ship contacted the quay at Durban Harbour and was moved to an alternative berth. Times Live filmed the incident on 3 September, and Freight News separately confirmed a supramax struck the quay. A large container ship then broke its moorings and blocked the main shipping channel at Durban, according to gCaptain, adding further delays for ships already waiting to berth.

St Francis Bay and the Indian Ocean waters off Gqeberha had near-zero ship traffic on this route 30 days ago. Both now show levels more typical of a major established waypoint.