Report calling for funds to be transferred to Coega 'meaningless', says Gama
SIYABONGA GAMA, Portnet's chief executive, has hit back at a claim by a Stellenbosch-based report that his organisation could have saved the R1,3 billion it is spending on container terminal extensions in Durban harbour by, instead, allotting all of its finances in this respect to the planned Ngqura port at Coega.
Maritime Education Research and Information Technology has completed an environmental impact assessment of the proposed Coega container terminal which is likely to be developed by P&O Nedlloyd. The saving of the Durban expenditure 'would have contributed substantially to the benefits of developing the terminal at Coega and would have required the construction of the port much sooner', it states.
"The statement is meaningless," says Gama. "Anybody can say anything. The fact of the matter is that Durban is the hub for containers and it will be so for many years to come."
The report claims that South Africa's ports were expected to grow at an average rate of 5,5% a year, with the number of container moves increasing from 1,8 million in 1999/2000 to about 5,2 million in 2019/20. This, it said, was well beyond the available capacity of the three existing container terminals at Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban.
At the same time it claimed that expansion costs at Durban to meet capacity until 2020 would be 'formidable' due to land shortage. As a result, the ideal location of a new container terminal was either Coega or Richards Bay with the former the preferred option.
Gama points out that the expansion of Durban's container terminal is designed to handle expected throughput until 2007/8. He said Portnet was considering alternatives for expanding Durban harbour after construction of a new port on the site of the current Durban International Airport had proved far too costly.
One major consideration, he said, was the reopening of negotiations with the navy, which occupies a vast tract of land near the port.
Transnet has committed R1,65 billion to the establishment of Ngqura, but Portnet is still in talks with P&O Nedlloyd on whether the R800 million container terminal will be included, he said. Negotiations are presently at what he describes as a 'sensitive stage' and would resume in early August.
