South Africa’s state-owned transport and logistics company Transnet has opened two more berths at Ngqura Container Terminal in the Eastern Cape, taking the port’s operating capacity to 1.5m teu, up from 800 000 teu, with a design capacity of 2.2m teu.
The ZAR2bn-plus (US$165m) investment included dredging to 16 m and purchase of equipment, including two megamax ship-to-shore-cranes, 18 RTGs, 48 haulers and 48 bathtub trailers.
The new berths, numbers 3 and 4, were official opened by public enterprises minister Lynne Brown who said: “This investment is significant to us as it strengthens the terminal’s capability to handle larger container vessels, improve efficiencies, vessel turnaround times and customer satisfaction.”
The addition of the berths has taken Transnet’s expenditure on Ngqura, which began operating in 2009, to ZAR12 bn. The company claims the port can now move 60 containers per hour per vessel.
Transnet plans to spend ZAR30.1bn during the next seven years developing operations at its three container terminals, the others being East London and Port Elizabeth, as well as railway infrastructure in the Eastern Cape. Its strategy includes developing Ngqura as a major transhipment hub linking ports in the East, West and Southern Africa with their trading partners.
