ALAN PEAT A SIGNIFICANT proportion of a R2-billion investment planned by the Bidvest group over the next few years will be spent on its port and inland infrastructure to increase capacity and efficiency, according to Anthony Dawe, CEO of group subsidiary, Bidfreight. His company is currently rated as the largest single private-sector tenant at the Port of Durban, for example, where it already handles about 10-million tons of cargo a year. “This investment in the group’s freight function,” he told FTW, is being driven by the need to handle even larger volumes of cargo more efficiently, and goes hand-in-hand with the general upgrading of port and rail infrastructure by the parastatal transport group, Transnet.” Six of the Bidfreight companies will get a share in the developmental monies. The forwarding operation, Safcor Panalpina, has just completed a10 000m2 airfreight facility at Johannesburg International Airport (JIA), and next year’s phase 2 will add another 10 000m2 The subsidiary, Island View Storage, has recently completed the addition of 10 500-cubic metres of tankage in Richards Bay – with plans for building a further 50 900 cu m to begin early in 2006. Currently under construction in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a new ship unloader for South African Bulk Terminals. This will take the company’s capability at Maydon Wharf in the Port of Durban from 1-million tons a year to 3-m tons. The installation will be completed by June 2006, Dawe told FTW. “Also, early in 2006, we will begin the construction of a further six new grain silos,” he said, “to add to the six we have already completed at Maydon Wharf.” The Bluff Mechanical Appliance in Durban, meantime, has an infrastructure upgrade on its 21-hectare site – and this is already more than 50% complete. It includes two new shiploaders, hard surfacing of all the quays and a large part of the site, upgrades to the conveyor and stacking systems and undercover storage facilities. “Negotiations with importers and exporters are progressing well,” Dawe said, “which will lead to further investments relating to specific products.” The container depot operation, SACD Freight, is in the process of completing planning permission in Cape Town for increased capacity on a new 7-hectare site within the NPA port boundary (see story alongside). “For Bidfreight Port Operations,” said Dawer, “the building of a 12 500m2 warehouse in Maydon Wharf is progressing well and will be complete by March 2006. “We have purchased a number of other leases within Maydon Wharf - further increasing our break bulk capabilities.” This, according to Dawe, is only a summary of the projects that are in progress.
