Investments planned for Eastern Cape ports

Transnet will be investing
in all three of the Eastern
Cape’s ports, according
to speakers at an FTWsponsored
Transport Forum
hosted at Ngqura in July.
Ngqura itself is being
remodelled from a “port
built around a smelter” to
a transit hub, according to
Tau Morwe, chief executive
officer of the Transnet
National Ports Authority.
Two additional berths
are expected to be open by
December this year, which
will enable the port to cater
for four new-generation
container vessels at a time.
Once additional gantries
have been installed (planned
for 2012), the extended
container park will be able
to handle two million TEUs
a year.
According to Morwe,
Ngqura has opened up new
opportunities for servicing
both the east and west coasts
of Africa.
A tender for the building
of a facility to handle bulk
liquids in Ngqura is due to
be awarded in December as
a precursor to moving the
existing tank farm from Port
Elizabeth.
FTW understands there
is much lobbying behind
the scenes for manganese
exports to be moved from
Port Elizabeth to Ngqura.
Transnet has undertaken
to halt manganese exports
through Port Elizabeth by
2017.
In order to cater for
growing demand for
manganese, the existing
railway line between the
Northern Cape and Port
Elizabeth will have to be
upgraded. Alternatively,
a new line can be built
to Saldanha – an option
apparently favoured by the
mines.
This would have a severe
impact on the future of the
two Port Elizabeth ports,
because the railway line
would then be downgraded
to branch status, effectively
cutting the ports off from
the hinterland by rail.
However, according to
Rajesh Dana, manager of
the Port of Port Elizabeth,
there are expansion plans for
the port of Port Elizabeth.
They include the deepening
of the container berth, and
investment in two new tugs
by 2013/2014, as well as
replacing the fleet of rubber
tyred gantries.
Refurbished ship-to-shore
gantries from Durban will
also replace the existing
gantries, all but one of
which have reached the
end of their serviceable
lifetimes, according to
Siyabulela Mhlaluka,
Transnet Port Terminals’
terminal executive for the
Eastern Cape region.
“Traffic through Port
Elizabeth is not going to
diminish. Ngqura is not
swallowing Port Elizabeth,”
he said.