Cargo won’t wait for resolution of CT expansion impasse

RAY SMUTS
ONGOING DELAYS to expansion of the Cape Town Container Terminal will merely result in the cargo moving to other ports. This was the message from public enterprises minister Alec Erwin when he addressed the Cape Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Mother City last week Whether or how the multi-million rand project will proceed is subject to further homework by the National Ports Authority. Environmental affairs and tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk was unimpressed with environmental impact assessment (EIA) research commissioned by the NPA from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and toward the end of last year appointed his own consultants. They concurred with his view that more needed to be done before finality could be reached on this project that aims to increase stack space from around 650 000 TEU to 1.5 million TEU a year.