Chetty markets SA’s hub benefits at China expo

Transnet Port Terminals used the TOC Asia 2009 Conference and Exhibition in Shenzhen, China earlier this month to punt its hub strategy to the global maritime industry. “Shipping lines and cargo owners can gain a cost advantage by consolidating traffic in South Africa for distribution to East and West Africa,” general manager of strategy, safety, health, environment and quality, Mervin Chetty, told delegates. “Already container lines are beginning to rationalise port calls globally due to the financial crisis.” Chetty argued that a container hub or relay strategy in sub-Saharan Africa could lower the cost of trade for shipping lines and cargo owners. “This would entail the move of sub-Saharan Africa away from its current multiple gateway system of medium sized ports, towards the model of a transhipment hub with large gateway feeder ports. A hub in South Africa should offer large transhipment volumes as well as gateway volume to feed cargo to other destinations in Africa,” he said. He believes the Port of Ngqura (Coega), fits the bill. The terminal will have an initial capacity of 800 000 TEUs when it starts commercial operations in early 2010 and will ramp up to two million TEUs eventually. “This is expected to decrease pressure on other busy South African container terminals in Durban, Pier 1 and Cape Town where Transnet has already seen a large increase in transhipment traffic as a result of vessels diverting from the Suez Canal,” he said. Elsewhere in Africa, the Port of Djibouti is creating an additional three million TEUs to achieve a total capacity of 3.4 million TEUs, while in Dakar, Senegal an additional 1.5 million TEUs would bring total capacity to 1.75 million TEUs. Similar investments are being made throughout Sub-Saharan Africa in ports like Port Louis in Mauritius, Mombasa in Kenya, Lagos in Nigeria, Walvis Bay in Namibia and Maputo in Mozambique.