Gauteng office drives home Walvis Bay’s ‘congestion-free’ message

A year into the opening of the Walvis Bay Corridor Group (WBCG) office near O R Tambo International Airport, the Group is driving home its message to Gauteng shippers about the congestion-free road and sea infrastructure available for cargo heading to inland nations to the north and to overseas markets via Namibia’s ports. “It is hard to quantify at this point how much new business has directly resulted from the opening of our new office – because we have been seeing an upswing in corridor use from Gauteng for some years. There was also a marketing campaign aimed at Gauteng that preceded the office,” said WBCG marketing officer Agnetha Mouton. Gauteng importers and exporters who choose to use Walvis Bay instead of Durban reap time savings. Although Durban is half the distance from Gauteng, port congestion ensures that trucks experience down time there compared to congestion-free Walvis Bay. As for cargo headed to Botswana, Namibia, DRC and Zambia, the 1800-km Trans Kalahari Corridor has proved a boon for road transporters. Announcing a new feeder service from the Far East to Walvis Bay, Maruba Container Lines noted “the importance of Walvis Bay as an import, export and transhipment hub to the rest of West Africa due to the welldeveloped infrastructure of Namibia in general, as well as the port. When viewed in general, the Port of Walvis Bay is a leader in delivering service and space availability for transhipment volumes, offering little to no congestion in terms of berthing delays and cargo operations, making it a truly cost efficient port.” Mouton said: “The Port of Walvis Bay has seen an increase in the number of international direct sailings and this has a direct relation to growth in corridor volumes serving Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the Gauteng region of South Africa.”