World Bank port index highlights southern Africa’s (and Transnet’s) sinking performance — and rebound

The World Bank has just published its annual Container Port Performance Index (CPPI). Launched in 2020 with S&P Global during a period of shipping turmoil in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the index — as the name suggests — measures the performance of container ports around the world. 

The main CPPI reflects global port performance and looks at trends such as turnaround times, delays and congestion. It also has regional indices, allowing for revealing comparisons across geographies. 

And the performance of southern Africa — which in many ways mirrors Transnet’s woes — has simply been awful over the past five years. (See graphic below.) But the report, which covers 2020 to 2024, notes operational improvements at Transnet in 2025, signalling that this ailing ship of the South African state is indeed turning around. 

“In 2022, the CPPI bottomed out, exhibiting the weakest performance over the five years,” the report says. 

But while the global average has risen and ebbed since 2022 like a ship on a fairly choppy sea, southern Africa’s CPPI score has sunk into the abyss. 

“The disruptions of 2024, particularly the Red Sea crisis, posed a challenge to ports across the African continent. South African ports, situated along the alternative Cape of Good Hope route, were directly affected as large volumes of diverted Asia-Europe trade transited past their shores,” the report notes. 

“This placed new demands on capacity and operational efficiency at a time when many ports worldwide experienced deteriorating performance.” 

The overall decline for this region over the period clearly mirrors the deterioration at Transnet, which for years was hobbled by underinvestment and mismanagement — with serious consequences for the South African economy. 

The state-owned enterprise’s port and rail failures have, in recent years, cost the South African economy hundreds of billions of rand in lost exports — a material blow to the economy and investor sentiment. 

Read more: SA mineral exports could be R150-bn higher if rail network reached potential — Minerals Council 

But like a lighthouse flickering in the mist, the report also highlights glimmers of hope from Transnet. 

“Based on latest data provided by Transnet, between mid-2024 and August 2025, vessel anchorage in South African ports went down by about 75%, gross crane moves per hour improved by 13%, and ship working moves went up by 25%,” it says. 

Taken together, these reforms and targeted investments have helped South African ports weather the Red Sea shock of 2024. "The resilience demonstrated by Coega and Cape Town highlights that structural reforms and operational improvements can translate quickly into measurable performance gains, even under challenging global conditions," the report states.

Transnet since the appointment of Michelle Phillips as group chief executive in March last year has shown signs of improvement, but it still has a steep hill to climb from the depths it plumbed. 

Read more: Transnet turnaround losses narrow but we have a long way to go, says CEO

The World Bank also pointed to notable rebounds in performance at Coega and Cape Town. 

“Cape Town improved its CPPI score by nearly 240 points between 2023 and 2024, one of the strongest gains globally. Cape Town has invested in new cranes and equipment, upgraded warehousing capacity, and introduced innovative measures such as hydraulic shore-tension units,” it says. 

“Coega (Ngqura) Port also improved by more than 160 index points, even as more than half of all ports worldwide saw their performance worsen during the same period. These improvements reflect targeted investments, operational reforms, and adaptive measures to handle rerouted traffic.”

So it’s not all doom and gloom, and hopefully this rebound can be maintained for the sake of South Africa’s low-growth economy. DM