THE PORT Elizabeth harbour's container terminal has four container gantry cranes for the first time as it comes to the end of its refurbishment and upgrading programme in the container terminal.
Portnet spokesperson Lize Hayward says the commissioning of the fourth gantry is part of a three-year programme to increase container handling capacity at the port.
Refurbished cranes were bought from the port of Durban in May 1996, and again in 1997 to supplement the two existing cranes.
Once the new cranes were in operation the older units were taken out of service one at a time for refitting. At the same time the height of the two cranes was raised to cater for post-Panamax vessels.
The handling capacity of cranes has thus been doubled since May last year, says Hayward.
The contract, which was awarded to Caillard at the beginning of last year, has now been completed on schedule.
The two cranes were upgraded at a cost of R8,5 million each.
Another project taking place in April this year is the positioning of the cranes in the correct order of one high, one low so that the taller cranes are able to work on the afterdeck of vessels where the containers are stowed higher, she says.
Two complementary projects have also been undertaken during the current financial year to increase the capacity of the Container Terminal.
The first project is the rail wagon transfer area which has been upgraded to accommodate longer trains as there has been a marked increase in the number of containers that pass through Port Elizabeth destined for Gauteng.
This R2,2 million project was completed in October last year.
The second project, which is 95% complete, includes an additional container stacking area of 60000 square metres at a cost of R18,5 million.
This increases the area's stacking capacity by approximately 1200 container positions.
It gives the container terminal a theoretical capacity of 320000 TEUs (six metre equivalent containers) per annum which is the terminal's full stacking capacity.
This stack capacity matches the capacity of the four cranes.
The present container volumes through the port are approximately 185000 TEUs a year.
By Ed Richardson
