Containers win breakbulk traffic

Port records 8% growth
RAY SMUTS
THE PORT of Cape Town has experienced growth of at least 8% this year – about 1% up on 2005 - and certainly put in a far stronger performance than the Western Cape is likely to. Interesting trends emerging are that containers are on the up and up, from 500 00 in 2003/04 to 700 000 this year. Bulk and breakbulk, on the other hand, are downsizing; 4 500 tons in 2003/04 to 3 000 tons in 2005/06; a decrease of 23%. “The reason for this,” explains port of Cape Town manager Sanjay Govan, is that a fair number of commodities that would normally have gone the breakbulk route, wood logs for example, are now going in containers, which have shown growth of more than 4%.”. The port handled 2 500 metric tons of petroleum (imports and exports) in 2003/04, which dropped to 1 500 metric tons in 2004/05 and increased slightly to 1 600 metric tons in 2005/06. Several other developments are in the pipeline, the first the imminent appointment of a preferred bidder for the ship repair facility at the Elliot Basin. Here, the investment could be anything from R80 million to R350 million, depending on what the bidder requires. The vessel traffic system is being upgraded at a cost of R3.6 million and should be commissioned within two months. All security fencing has been erected, except that strong winds are causing their share of damage to the railings, and the security camera system should be in place next year at a total cost of some R35 million. Although ship repair is not a core business for the port, the NPA is nevertheless spending R4 million on maintaining equipment. Eight oil rigs and seven off-shore oil-related called at the port for maintenance and other requirements during the past year. As to the year ahead, Govan says: “We expect a steady increase in containers and hope the multi-purpose terminal will at least maintain volumes and possibly grow some back.”