THE CHAIRMAN of the Association of Shipping Lines (ASL), which represents about 90% of all shipping lines calling at South African ports, says that recent media reports that the organisation will back the Coega project are not correct (FTW September 7, 2001). Meanwhile, Dave Rennie, who represented the ASL at the SACOB Transport Committee meeting on August 15, says that his written comments to the Coega Development Corporation have been misconstrued. "I stated that the ASL agrees there is a need to develop additional container capacity at South Africa's ports, but we have not endorsed Coega, or any other port for that matter. The SACOB Transport Committee concluded that they were not in a position to provide a view and have requested that a technical committee investigates the issue further and reports back." To page 24 The chairman of the ASL, Alan Rolfe, confirmed that the association had not endorsed development of Coega as a container port. "There are further studies and discussions presently taking place and we do not believe it opportune to comment any further at present," he said. The Rennie report, of which FTW has obtained a copy, analyses current planned container development at the ports. It suggests that sufficient berths either exist or can be developed in existing ports, to meet anticipated capacity requirements of 5,25 million TEU until 2020. "It is strongly recommended that as far as the provision of a container terminal at the Port of Ngqura is concerned, as envisaged in the report, this needs to be further tested against the potential expansion of existing facilities to meet the projected demand until 2019/2020." The chairman of the ASL, Alan Rolfe, confirmed that the association had not endorsed development of Coega as a container port. "There are further studies and discussions presently taking place and we do not believe it opportune to comment any further at present," he said. The Rennie report, of which FTW has obtained a copy, analyses current planned container development at the ports. It suggests that sufficient berths either exist or can be developed in existing ports, to meet anticipated capacity requirements of 5,25 million TEUs until 2020. "It is strongly recommended that as far as the provision of a container terminal at the Port of Ngqura is concerned, as envisaged in the report, this needs to be further tested against the potential expansion of existing facilities to meet the projected demand until 2019/2020."
