Durban port considers 8m TEU ceiling

TERRY HUTSON PORT AUTHORITIES are considering placing a cap on future container growth at the port of Durban. But before everyone starts throwing their toys out of the cot, the capping is set at 8 million TEUs as the maximum number that Durban can handle. Last year the port handled 1.6m. The Port Master Plan, which goes before cabinet before the end of this year, apparently contains a fundamental that the port has a ceiling beyond which it becomes uneconomical to grow. According to public enterprises minister Alec Erwin, once the Master Plan has received cabinet approval it will go on a countrywide roadshow, probably in early 2006. In order for Durban to reach the magical figure of 8m TEUs, it will be necessary to convert Salisbury Island from its existing military background for future car terminal extension and container handling. Container handling will result mostly by filling in the water area between Pier 1 and the naval station, which port manager Basil Ndlovu says will increase the port’s container capacity to 5m TEU. The balance of 3m TEUs, he says, will come from digging out part of the Bayhead southwest of Bayhead Road. Ship repair is unlikely to be affected but shipbuilding projects will be, although Ndlovu says the NPA’s long-term plans call for this activity to move to Richards Bay anyway. But for any who fear these plans will turn Durban into a container backwater, it should take at least 20 years before the figure of 8m TEUs is reached, based on an annual growth of 8%. The optimists among us will say that by that time the chances are that common sense and market forces will have dictated the development of new container terminal facilities and infrastructure at Richards Bay.