First delivery at new-look berth

Pacific International Line’s Kota Waruna carved a niche for herself last week as the first vessel to tie up at Cape Town Container Terminal’s new-look Berth 601, sporting a set of post-panamax twin lift ship to shore gantry cranes. No sooner had news of the vessel’s impending arrival reached FTW via Captain Tony Nicholas, Cape Town branch manager for PIL South Africa, than Transnet Port Terminals’ business unit executive, Oscar Borchards, made clear why preference had been shown a smaller vessel – the Waruna with maximum capacity of 1 550teu. “We needed to identify an appropriate-sized vessel as 601 would not have been able to accommodate a larger ship for now, given the next two cranes at Berth 602 are not yet operational.” Borchards says all new cranes (R60 million apiece) covering the terminal’s four berths will be subjected to 100 operational hours each before an official handover by crane manufacturer, Liebherr. Deployed on the West Africa trade, Kota Waruna arrived off the Mother City container terminal on August 18 and berthed on August 20 for an actual delay of 42.17 hours. She discharged 162 TEUs and loaded 94 TEUs, to be followed on berth by MSC Marmara. PIL’s Kota Waruna … first vessel to tie up at Cape Town Container Terminal’s newlook Berth 601.