4 500-TEU vessels for Walvis Bay

Maersk Line has introduced a 4 500 TEU service for West Africa, with Walvis Bay as the first port of call from the East, says Dries Oberholzer, managing director of Maersk Namibia. “These will be the largest vessels to call on West Africa,” he says. Investments in the port of Walvis Bay to lengthen the container terminal quayside and deepen the drafts in the channel and turning basin have made it possible to introduce the service. “The fact that Walvis Bay is the first port of call is proof that Namport has done well,” he says. Containers will be unloaded in Walvis Bay to lighten the vessels before they proceed to other ports along the west coast of Africa, he says. The 4 500 TEU WAFMAX vessels are purpose-built to provide Maersk Line’s West African customers with direct services from the Far East ports. They will be 250 metres long, with a draught of 13.5 metres – too deep for most other West African ports. Some of the vessels will be geared, according to Hanne Sorensen, chief communications officer of Maersk Line. She was speaking at the naming ceremony of the Maersk Conakry at the shipyard recently. The growth of the African market, combined with physical infrastructure not developing at the same speed, has created a demand for ships with special designs that are able to match the maximum capacity of the ports. Oberholzer says the challenge for Namport and the Walvis Bay Corridor Group, is to balance and grow imports and exports through Walvis Bay in order to retain existing shipping services, and to attract new calls. It is important that Namport continues to improve the efficiency of the port in order to build up the transhipment volumes which make it economical for the larger vessels to call directly on Walvis Bay. It is vital to establish trade routes before other ports in the region become competitive – particularly those along the East African coastline, which are closer to the Copperbelt, and also just nine days’ sailing from the East, which is the region’s main trading partner. Walvis Bay’s real geographic strength lies in its proximity to Europe and the Americas, he says.