East London named best performing port in SA

‘We are the fastest route from Europe to Gauteng’ KEVIN MAYHEW THE RECENT announcement that the Port of East London has been recognised as the best performing port in the country by the national Department of Transport typifies a buoyant mood and expectation of big things to come in the east coast city. Spearheaded by major growth in automobile and container traffic through the port, it has recorded a remarkable year as it prepares to present its development plan in early 2005 for funding from parent company Transnet to meet the challenges of the future. National Ports Authority East London manager, Thami Ntshingila, believes that they have all the key elements in place to begin making it a port of choice for many Gauteng businesses. “We have consulted extensively with Spoornet, the East London Industrial Development Company - particularly with regard to our local Industrial Development Zone and its needs to be internationally competitive - and our core business partners here in the Eastern Cape. We now know that we provide a world class service and the award acknowledges it,” he says. The first Best Performing Port Award - presented to the NPA of East London at a function in Cape Town recently - was judged on a number of criteria that covered the entire spectrum of services expected of a world class port. These included good stakeholder relations, positive reports from shipping lines using it, no delays, control of damage to cargo, consistently low turnaround times and the like. “In the past year we have played a key role in the smooth operations of prime international blue chip companies such as DaimlerChrysler as they have embarked on major export drives. “We have introduced greater security and the port was one of the first to be ISPS compliant prior to the official implementation date of July 1, 2004,” adds Ntshingila. On its claim to a larger share of the export and import containerised and automobile cargo from the Reef, Ntshingila stresses that the port, for all its success, is still only operating at 60% capacity and it can cut the import and export shipping time from Europe by 14% to bring it down from a 21-day trip to 18. “We are the fastest route from Europe to Gauteng and our infrastructure is not under strain. Capacity for five container trains a week is already established and we have dedicated container and vehicle terminals to handle the load,” he said. He concedes that some areas need immediate attention such as the port’s expansion to cater for long term growth. These are elements contained in its proposal for funding to be presented to Transnet. “We believe that the government will support our business plan as it forms part of the capacity expansion plan for Transnet itself which announced changes to its core business focus. Apart from the pipeline business of Petronet, Transnet’s focus will be on retaining Spoornet, South African Port Operations, and the National Ports Authority and turning them into valuable and profitable components for its future. “Port of East London intends to be a healthy part of that future,” he concluded