Alan Peat BY THE last week of November, the three second hand cranes due to alleviate the current ship-to-shore gantry shortage in Durban were still no nearer being ordered. According to inside sources, a port steering committee (PSC) meeting as long ago as July 16 was told that Sapo had found five cranes in Rotterdam - three for Durban and two for Cape Town. But, although finance for the Durban cranes had also been approved, the deal eventually petered out. First Cape Town port authorities objected to the used cranes - citing both operational and technical problems - and indicated they would rather wait for new equipment. But then the complete deal collapsed, blamed at the time on “vendor issues”. At an urgent meeting with the PSC, FTW was told, the director general of Public Enterprises described this development as “a disaster” and apparently ordered Sapo to find other equipment immediately. Possibilities were identified in La Spezia, Italy and Hamburg, Germany. Letters of intent By the middle of November, according to our source, letters of intent had been exchanged with the Italian owners and an option taken on the Hamburg units. But by the last week of the month, no firm contract had yet been signed with the Italian owners, because a final delivered price was not available. It was also decided that the option on the three Hamburg cranes would not be exercised. This because the initial intent had been to site the cranes on a second, smaller terminal planned for Durban’s Pier 1. But the condition of the used cranes, and the time required to develop the new terminal, had persuaded the port authorities to rather wait for new cranes. The three new ship-to-shore gantries for Durban, meantime, were ordered in September - with delivery due in the first quarter of 2005. At the same time, the contract with the supplier of the three Durban cranes included an option for a further two, which is now to be exercised. The intent is that these two cranes will go to Cape Town, an order that has been approved by the Transnet board in principle. The arrival of these two units, and the expansion and improvement of Cape Town terminal, are expected to be completed by early 2006.
