On Friday 10 October 2025, the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court dismissed Maersk’s case to halt the awarding of a Transnet tender for the operations at the Durban Container Terminal – Pier 2 to ICTSI, one of the world’s largest, independent terminal operator across six continents. This clarifies that the awarding of the tender to ICTSI to run the Durban Container Terminal Pier 2 was fair and transparent.
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International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) welcomes a judgment handed down by the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court, which on October 10, 2025, dismissed Maersk’s case to halt the awarding of a Transnet tender to ICTSI. This clarifies that the awarding of the tender to ICTSI to run the Durban Container Terminal Pier 2 was fair and transparent.
The ruling, delivered by Judge Mahendra Chetty, brings a decisive end to a dispute that losing bidder Maersk brought on spurious legal grounds. The court critiqued Maersk’s decision to wait until March 2024 to bring the challenge, even though the concession was awarded to ICTSI in July 2023. The court noted this was an “undue delay” and that Maersk’s application failed on this basis.
Maersk had also challenged how ICTSI calculated its solvency ratio in the tender process. Solvency is one of the measurements that Transnet used to judge whether bidders could afford to run the port. The court found ICTSI was transparent about its calculation method and had provided ample credible evidence of its financial capacity to run the Durban Container Terminal. It said given the weight of public interest in having an efficient port for the national economy, a disagreement on a single ratio was “not a basis to set aside” the tender decision.
Maersk was in essence asking the court to force Transnet to accept their lower bid for the concession, having offered R2 billion less than ICTSI’s offer of R11billion.
“This ruling reaffirms our confidence in the legality of the bidding process and validates our commitment to operating with integrity and in full compliance with the law,” said ICTSI regional head Hans-Ole Madsen. “We have always believed in the strength of our position, and we are pleased that the court has agreed.”
With this judgment, the long-awaited public-private partnership at the Durban Container Terminal can finally be implemented. The terminal handles the bulk of South Africa’s containerised shipping freight and has been beset by delays and bottlenecks in the past. The agreement between Transnet and ICTSI will allow significant investment into the skills and infrastructure at the port, to the benefit of South Africa’s economy.
“We now stand ready and look forward to working with Transnet at the Durban Container Terminal and the importers and exporters who rely on South Africa’s busiest container terminal to make a range of operational improvements for the betterment of all stakeholders and the South African economy,” said Madsen.
