Equipment concerns allayed for CT port customers

Transnet Port Terminals last week moved quietly to allay customer concerns over supposedly incompatible equipment, giving the assurance that Cape Town Container Terminal is on the receiving end of the very best money can buy. TPT’s national capacity and projects manager, Akash Maharaj joined Velile Dube, TPT’s regional terminal executive for Cape Town and Saldanha, for a 90-minute face-to-face with this correspondent to set the record straight. Maharaj is closely associated with most of the 15 major R100 million-plus TPT projects, including the Mother City’s R5.5 billion container terminal expansion, so not unsurprisingly reels off facts and figures like an automated abacus. First to be debunked were concerns over the efficacy of the new eight-wheel rubber gantries – unable, say some, to work at wind speeds beyond 72km/h. Cape winds well exceed that at times. He also addressed the question of whether the RTGs were compatible with the new ship-to-shore cranes which are said to be able to work at wind speeds up to 110km/h. Maharaj says the Kalmar eight-wheel RTGs and the Liebherr super postpanamax twin-lift cranes are state-of-the-art and world-class, both with the same operational (wind) limit of 90km/h. “I know of no crane that can go up to 110km/h. “The Kalmar (RTG) operates at 72km/h at normal mode, then when it goes to 80km/h it is at 80% mode and at 90km/h at 70% mode. “The machine is structurally safe to work up to 90km/h at reduced speed but when the wind gusts to 120km/h there is nothing you can do about it.” Maharaj says TPT looked at the eight and 16-wheel RTGs and found no operational difference between the two, aside from the latter presenting a lower load on the pavement. He is therefore satisfied TPT made the right decision in the eightwheeler for Cape Town, indeed for the other ports too. “Cape Town’s RTGs are not off-the-shelf stock but rather capable of ‘longtravel’ during heavy winds. Coming at a cost of R15 million apiece, 20 RTGs have thus far been commissioned for Cape Town Container Terminal, four are in the process of commissioning and the remaining four will follow within the next month or so. That will put Cape Town at the top of TPT’s shopping list for RTGs with 28, and eight super post-panamax ship-to-shore cranes, compared with 22 RTGs at Durban’s Pier 1, none at Durban Container Terminal and 12 similar to Cape Town cranes split between the two terminals. Maharaj says this is not the RTG finale for Cape Town. There’s a distinct probability of a further 16-20 units when Phase 2 of terminal development gets under way five years hence.