Mining activities keep Walvis pumping

The Port of Walvis Bay has seen much growth in recent years with an increase of 38% in the movement of bulk and breakbulk commodities and nearly 100% growth in the container industry. According to Christian Faure, marketing and strategic business development executive for the Namibian Ports Authority, this has been largely based on the mining activities in the region that form the core business through the Port of Walvis Bay. “We have only been operating a container terminal for the past ten years and in that time we have grown from a base of nothing to a situation where we are now peaking at 265 000 TEUs, which is the equivalent of about 2.5 million tons. Yes, we have had some serious growing pains during this time, but we are extremely proud of the achievements we have made.” Faure said essentially the port had developed from a purely breakbulk port to a fully fuctioning multi-cargo facility showing phenomenal growth despite a global economic recession. “We are operating in the same arena as some very established ports like Africa’s biggest ports – Durban and Cape Town – where efforts are under way to increase capacity. In Luanda much progress has been made to address congestion, while the Port of Maputo has improved tremendously in recent years.” Faure said as a port authority they acknowledged the importance of all the ports in southern Africa as well as the challenges they needed to overcome from a Namibian perspective. “The reality is this, just Angola’s trade with China is some $11 billion while Namibia’s entire GDP is $11 billion. We will never have the trade capacity to make full use of the port – only 20% of what goes through the port is destined and comes from Namibia. That is why we focus so heavily on the corridors.” Faure said the port was actively working towards increasing capacity and efficiency to ensure it attracted more regional trade. “We have just completed a R240 million terminal optimisation programme entailing a new quay, two mobile cranes and an extended quay for more storage that has all allowed us to attract more business.” The port is also more efficient than ever before, now averaging some 43 moves per vessel per hour with the mobile cranes.