Durban achieves record turnover

TERRY HUTSON VOLUMES AT the Port of Durban continue to reach record highs month after month. Statistically 2004 was yet another good year for Durban. The Durban Container Terminal achieved its highest ever annual turnover of 1.548 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) and now regularly handles in excess of 140 000 TEUs each month, peaking at 154 811 in November. This is an 11.6% increase on the 2003 figure, which is on a par with world trends. The port’s other star achiever is the Durban Car Terminal, which has already outgrown the new parkade completed earlier last year, with a startling 43.1% increase in volume for 2004. The total number of motor vehicles handled during the year was 202 699 vehicles - well beyond what was targeted. This increase in volumes emphasises the urgent need for improvements to road and rail access to the port to maintain client service and avoid the bottlenecks already occurring along Bayhead and Maydon Roads and Victoria Embankment. The planned construction of a bridge extension for Bayhead Road linking with the Umbilo arterial, due to commence this year, will help but won’t by itself solve the problem of too many road vehicles now accessing the port. Nor will a third lane leading into the container terminal. Later this year Sapo will bring the new deepwater City Terminal quayside at the Point into service, an area handling breakbulk and bulk cargo that will further add to the number of road and rail vehicles accessing the Point.