A NEW rail link has given a vital thrust to Containerlink's inter-regional networking capabilities in empty containers, according to director Mark Holbrook.
A rail siding - with a capacity for 14 railway trucks (28-container maximum) - has been commissioned for the Container-link empty container complex in Bluff Road. And a second rail spur is on the planning boards.
Strategic studies revealed that adding a rail siding access could vastly improve our market capture in the Gauteng and Richards Bay regions, Holbrook said. It will improve our volume throughput, and allows us to offer a much more flexible product in the transport and storage market for empty containers. The existing structure of the depot facilitated this new addition, he added.
We already had a gantry crane which can handle both six and twelve metre (20 and 40 foot) containers, with under-the-crane stacking space for 2 800 units, he told FTW. The siding can be worked either by forklifts or the gantry crane - giving us a current, maximum capacity of 7 000 container movements a month. In the latest budget approval from the Grindrod Group parent, the Containerlink empty container depot has also introduced new equipment to the yard - taking the shape of two of the latest models of 16-ton, 6-high and 5-high, stackers from Kalmar.
This infrastructure gives us a smoothly efficient throughput of empties, said Holbrook, and allows us to handle both road and rail movement with equal ease.
