Saldanha may provide ultimate solution RAY SMUTS THE NATIONAL Ports Authority is looking at possible ways of leasing the port of Cape Town’s drydock facilities, amid mutters by certain role players in the ship repair industry that charges are way above the norm. On the subject of profitability from ship repairs, port manager Sanjay Govan asserts: “There is not big money for the port of Cape Town from the repair industry perspective, but certainly for ship repairers. “Most of the overseas docks are owned by certain companies and repairs carried out by the very same whereas we merely own the drydocking facility while repairs are carried out by an outside contractor. The real money, so we are told, is made by them.” The high price of drydocking in Cape Town appears to be mitigating against much more large-scale business, a recent report referring in particular to a five-day drydock cost for a 161-metre long cargo vessel with a registered gross tonnage of 18 000. Cape Town emerges as the most expensive at US$53 650 while similar charges are US$13 975 in Tampa, Florida, US$9 800 in Athens Greece, US$13 000 in Britain, US$4 493 in Hong Kong and as little as US$2 290 in Singapore. The NPA makes the point ship repair facilities in Cape Town, unlike other centres around the globe, are neither subsidised by government nor local authorities and that rental of drydock facilities amounts to mooring service fees alone. Ship repair industry executives make the point that, cost aside, Cape Town and Durban are not only among the oldest drydocks but their services well below the standard of facilities elsewhere in the world. Talking long-term, Govan believes the answer might ultimately lie in a major ship repair facility cited at the port of Saldanha, which has an abundance of space, unlike the port of Cape Town.
