CT straddle arrives with fanfare

RAY SMUTS LAST WEEK marked a special occasion at the Cape Town Container Terminal when Kalmar officially handed over its 7th generation straddle carrier No: 4 000. They cost between €700 000 and 900 000 apiece, have lifting capacity of up to 50 tons and can stack boxes four-high. Juhani Lukumaa, president of Kalmar Container Handling, specially in the Mother City for the milestone event, declares the company’s investment in South Africa marks a commitment to playing an integral role, along with Sapo, in the development of the country’s port industry. Such is the commitment by Kalmar to the South African port scenario that it has established a Durban-based subsidiary, Kalmar Industries South Africa, headed by Edwin Briggeman, who is tasked with overseeing ongoing Sapo deliveries. Kalmar’s sound relationship with Sapo has been under­scored by a constant flow of orders. After a world record order for 60 straddle carriers in 2001 and 53 more in August 2005, Sapo followed up with another brief for 26 straddles in January of this year Comments Tau Morwe, CEO of Sapo: “The straddle fleet expansion is in keeping with Transnet’s four-point turnaround plan, re-engineering core business, promoting efficiencies, reducing the cost of doing business and improving service delivery.” By the end of 2006, a total of 146 straddle carriers will be operational at Sapo terminals, 101 at Durban Container Terminal, 30 at Cape Town Container Terminal and 15 at Port Elizabeth’s multi-purpose terminal. Sapo has, in the year to March, spent R780 million of the R6.3 billion earmarked to develop its domestic terminals over the next five years and, asserts Morwe, requires more land to grow.