Cape Town terminal gets the green light

IT’S full speed ahead for the long-overdue extension of the Cape Town container terminal, albeit it in amended format to that proposed at the outset. This was confirmed to FTW over the weekend by Transnet National Ports Authority port manager, Sanjay Govan, who had just got the go-ahead from environmental minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk. Transnet has yet to respond officially to the rubber-stamping, but as previously reported by FTW, changes in the offing will involve land reconfiguration to create greater stacking space, utilising rubber-tyre gantries to stack containers higher, moving existing cool rooms and demolishing nonessential buildings. Van Schalkwyk says the port authority has clearly motivated the economic necessity of the terminal extension and asserts utilisation of alternative ports such as Saldanha is not viable. Transnet’s plan for the terminal, yet to receive board approval, revolves around two phases over five years. l Deepening the four container berths from 13.4m to 14.5 m, allowing for an additional 1m under keel; l Reconfiguring existing Transnet land to provide additional surfacing, reefer plug points and new equipment. Govan makes clear the terminal, handling close to 800 000 teus a year, is at capacity and given the manner in which it is working, “not very efficient in its operation.” He says the reconfigured plan will allow for around 1.4 million teus a year. “What is nice is that this represents not the maximum but the optimum capacity.” Govan is loathe to speculate on cost of reconfiguration – Transnet CEO Maria Ramos estimates R4.5 billion. Unlike the largely environmental opposition to Transnet’s original proposal to extend the terminal 300m out to sea, not a single appeal was lodged with the environmental ministry over the berth deepening, on which a Record of Decision was issued in August. What seems clear is this alternative decision on the terminal sits much better with the environmentalists.