Durban officially gets a new container terminal

Previous MPT now becomes Pier 1 Container Terminal TERRY HUTSON SOUTH AFRICA has a new container terminal, and that you can take as official. Tau Morwe, chief executive of SA Port Operations, recently named it the Pier 1 Container Terminal at a private ceremony for Pier One personnel. The container terminal will occupy most of Pier 1 in the area formerly known as Durban’s Multi Purpose Terminal or MPT, which is to be relocated to a new deepwater terminal at the Point. Durban’s acting port engineer, Rajan Chetty told a SACOB Maritime meeting in Durban last week that the Pier One upgrade as a container terminal was progressing on schedule. Three berths - 105, 106 and 107 - will be placed in service and will be equipped with five new post-Panamax ship to shore cranes. Being a separate container terminal, a new rail terminal will be developed along with separate road access points. Chetty said that the NPA would retain possession of the berths on the other side of Pier 1 (100-103), which would be used for general purpose and bunker duties. Sapo recently invited tenders for the supply of rubber tyred gantries and a large number of bathtub trailers for Pier 1 Container Terminal, which is a radical departure from the straddle carrier operation in use at all other South African terminals. The advantage of the RTGs is said to be speed of operation and the ability to stack containers higher than the current two-high container stacks at Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.