Durban and Coega among the world’s most improved ports

The latest Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) from the World Bank lists Durban and Coega as among the most improved ports in the world in 2025 compared to the previous year.

On a five-year time frame, Port Elizabeth was listed as one of the five most improved ports between 2020 and 2025.

This is a sharp turnaround from the 2025 CPPI, which ranked four SA ports – Durban, Coega, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth – among the worst in the world.

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These rankings attracted backlash from numerous sources for focusing on the amount of time vessels spent at port without weighing the underlying factors or root causes of extended port times.

This year, the CPPI report does not include a table of the worst-performing ports.

Of the top 20 performing ports, eight are in China and Hong Kong. Tanger Med in Morocco is the only African port to make it into the top 10.

The latest report shows that sub-Saharan Africa continues to lag far behind the rest of the world in port performance.

Durban highlights

The report notes that Durban improved vessel turnaround times in 2025 despite continued volatility in global supply chain conditions.

Reduced waiting times reduced the number of waiting vessels to zero from 20 previously, due to “gradual operational stabilisation and the initial impacts of equipment recovery and management reforms.”

This improvement at Durban coincided with better berth utilisation, as the share of time spent at berth increased from about 52% in 2024 to about 76% in 2025, indicating a shift away from anchorage and pre-berth delays toward productive operations. 

Top 10 most improved ports 2024-2025

Source: The Container Port Performance Index 2025

The operational gains in Durban have been supported by new investments and increased private-sector participation, most notably the 25-year concession awarded in December 2025 to the Philippines-based port operator International Container Terminal Services (ICTSI) to operate and manage Durban’s Container Terminal Pier 2.

This is expected to increase container volumes from 2 million to 2.8 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in the coming years.

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“While absolute ship time in [Durban] port remains long, the CPPI improvement signals recovery momentum,” says the report.

Bad weather plagues Cape Port

It was a different story at Cape Town, where bad weather contributed to port delays. Persistent weather-related disruption, combined with equipment reliability issues, led to high variability in ship times in port despite periods of easing supply chain stress. 

“This deterioration was accompanied by a decline in berth utilisation, suggesting that vessels increasingly accumulated time outside productive berth operations,” says the CPPI.

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In response, Cape Town has introduced a predictive wind model developed with the CSIR to reduce weather-related disruptions, a helicopter piloting service to improve ship access during high swells, and a digital technology platform for cargo planning. 

“The port’s CPPI trajectory underlines how structural exposure to external conditions can dominate performance outcomes, independent of global demand cycles.”

Reasons for the improvement include reduced vessel turnaround times, or, as the report calls it, time absorption.

This refers to the time spent in port beyond baseline operational requirements, reflecting queuing, waiting, and idle berth time, as well as the port’s ability to cope with volatile arrival patterns and recover from disruption.

Read: Port of Cape Town secures FFS Tank Terminals for 25-year liquid bulk concession

What makes good ports

Top-performing ports are characterised by short, predictable vessel turnaround times for a given workload.

They combine adequate nautical access, sufficient berth and crane capacity, and well-integrated yard operations with stable coordination routines. Importantly, they limit unproductive waiting time and maintain a high share of vessel time in productive berth operations.

The most improved ports are those that perform well not just under ideal, but also under volatile conditions.

Ports that perform well or improve rapidly tend to operate in environments where the roles and incentives of public authorities, terminal operators, and service providers are aligned.

Predictable regulatory frameworks, transparent concession arrangements, and effective data sharing reduce friction and allow ports to respond more flexibly to shocks.

Another factor supporting port improvement is digitisation, enabling ports to share reliable, timely information on vessel arrivals, berth status, yard conditions and landside flows.

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The index, produced by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence, offers a global benchmark for container port efficiency using consistent, verified, and empirical data.

The CPPI report notes the rise in global supply chain disruptions, characterised by congestion arriving in short, intense bursts. These can rapidly overwhelm ports, usually as a result of severe weather, labour disruptions, geopolitical rerouting, and landside constraints.

Ports where vessels spend extra days create knock-on late arrivals at the next ports of call, causing a vicious cycle where port congestion in Asia leads to ships arriving late in Europe, in turn causing congestion there.