... including Coega if it
goes ahead
Ray Smuts
PRIVATISATION OF South Africa's ports should proceed without further ado. That's the view of Brett Gray, managing director of Southern Africa Transport Investments (SATI).
"We are not at all surprised at the delay, but once privatisation comes we would be very interested in the container terminals per se at all South African ports. For the A.P. Moller Group the more terminals, the better for its vessels."
And that interest extends to Coega as well if it goes ahead, says Gray. "We have always had a question mark about Coega. We don't believe it is the right solution for South Africa, and without a blueprint for all South African ports it is very difficult to comment on Coega."
Gray believes that expansion should take place in Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town and that privatisation will hopefully bring about an improvement in productivity and the ability to handle the anticipated increased volumes.
"Once you have achieved that can you start to comment on whether Coega is a good or a bad thing," Gray says.
He points out that contrary to the original view of Coega becoming a huge transhipment port, people are now starting to wonder where all those volumes are gong to come from. And they're realising that a container terminal is questionable for the time being.
As to why P&O Nedlloyd, the Coega Development Corporation's Ôpreferred partner' for developing a container terminal, still has no contract in place, Gray says:
"I think it is clear they would expect certain guarantees as to cargo volumes and also guarantees in terms of railing the cargo to Gauteng.
"Our calculation is that the daily number of trains to and from Gauteng would be around 40 (both directions combined) on a single line so I don't know who sang that song and got them to take that boat."
