The single
shipment was more than East London
harbourÕs entire container traffic for a full month in previous years
Ed Richardson
THE PORT of East London set a record when the Safmarine Emonti sailed after having processed 1037 containers - the highest number for a single ship in the harbour.
Port Authority spokesman Terry Taylor said that Safmarine Emonti offloaded 520 containers and took on 517 containers before sailing.
"The port processed a total of 1037 containers or the equivalent of 1837 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) off a single ship," Taylor said.
"This beats any previous record for containers handled by the port off a single vessel. The previous best was about 700 containers," he added.
"The single shipment was more than East London harbourÕs entire container traffic for a full month in previous years," Taylor said.
Safmarine Emonti, a dedicated vessel carrying the Xhosa name for the city, plies the route between Europe and South Africa.
Another sign that the port is becoming internationally recognised in shipping circles was that part of the cargo - 250 containers - will be transhipped to other ports.
Some 150 containers are to be sent to Cape Town and 100 to Port Elizabeth.
The bulk of these will be carried by Safmarine Buffalo, which was also named after the port.
"In the past we always received cargo from other ports around the coast and now we are shipping goods onward."
The increase in the growth of cargo through the port has been "phenomenal", Taylor said.
In the first six months of the current financial year, April to September, the port handled a total of 30777 TEUs.
"In the same period last year the harbour handled a total of 8489 TEUs.
This represents an increase of 360% in our year-on-year totals."
By the end of September, the harbour had already exceeded its entire previous year's total of 28187 TEUs, Taylor said.
"We are expecting an extremely good month for October once the figures are tallied," he added.
