Cape plays host to wind-powered carrier

The German project and heavy lift sea carrier, Beluga Shipping, is still finding SA an attractive, growing marketplace – with on-going demand for power plant equipment, building materials, steel products, mine equipment and construction parts for the renovation of the stadia for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. And Beluga advertised its foothold in SA when it celebrated its first anniversary in its Johannesburg branch office by sending the auxiliary wind-powered carrier, MV Beluga SkySails, to sail around the Cape of Good Hope at the end of last year. SA is currently getting its share of Beluga’s fleet of 60 multipurpose heavy lift project carriers – offering tonnage in SA ports for general and breakbulk cargo and bigger bulk parcels of coal and minerals. President and CEO Niels Stolberg told FTW that the demand for project cargo shipments had been very strong over the past years. And, he added, “according to various reports it is about to rise further in the future, particularly in the super-heavy lift segment. Ever bigger, heavier and more complex cargoes are being transported across the oceans – including to-andfrom SA.”