Durban and Richards Bay are among the two busiest ports in Africa – Durban for containers and Richards Bay for bulk.
In 2024, Durban Container Terminal (DCT) handled a total of 2 650 419 twenty-foot containers – well below its combined design capacity of 3.6 million TEUs.
Africa’s busiest port, Tanger Med in Morocco, handled 10.24 million TEUs in 2024.
Closer to home, Mombasa reported a record two million TEUs in 2024.
Logistical and infrastructure upgrades, as well as a healthy demand from Asia, played a key role in coal exports from South Africa’s Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) increasing for the first time in nearly a decade.
This, as operator Transnet’s turnaround strategy starts yielding results, according to Vaibhav Chakraborty of S&P Global.
In 2024, RBCT handled 52.1 million tonnes of coal, with predictions of 55 million tonnes in 2025.
According to Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA), Richards Bay handled 83.4 million tonnes of cargo in the 2024 calendar year. It was made up of 79.5 million tonnes of dry bulk, three million tonnes of liquid bulk and 863 million tonnes of breakbulk.
There is, however, strong competition from Maputo.
Fitch Solutions predicts that private investment will see Maputo port volumes exceed those of Durban by 2027.
It says the Port of Maputo in Mozambique is on track to strengthen its role as a pivotal logistics hub in Southern Africa, driven by the Maputo Port Development Company’s (MPDC’s) strategic investment of $600 million to enhance terminal facilities by 2026.
“This initiative is part of a more expansive $2 billion investment plan aimed at broadening the port’s capacity and infrastructure by 2058,” states Fitch.
The MPDC has pledged $600 million to increase its container terminal capacity from 170 000 to 530 000 TEUs (twenty-foot Equivalent Units) over the next three years. It has also pledged to increase the Matola Coal Terminal’s throughput from 7 to 12 million tons by the end of 2026.
