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.