Namport to invest R500m in upgrades over next five years

‘Providing an intermodal blueprint for all corridors’ KEVIN MAYHEW THE PORT of Walvis Bay will receive a capital injection of $N500million (R500m) over the next five years to expand and improve its facilities and capacity, according to manager, marketing and strategic business development, Jerome Mouton. He said that the money was not being spent to upgrade its facilities but to remain ahead of southern Africa’s needs. “It is Namport’s stated intention to invest in anticipation of need rather than wait until it is forced to improve facilities,” he said. “The difference between South Africa’s billions being injected into port infrastructure now is that they are trying to redress a policy not to invest over the past 20 years and infrastructure has slipped behind. We have caught up with what is needed and are now determined to stay ahead of the game so that we can be what we deserve to be – the preferred trade port for southern Africa trying to reach South and North American and Trans Atlantic markets especially,” he said. In 2005 Walvis Bay reported an increase in TEUs, container transhipments and breakbulk. “It was a fantastic year of growth – especially in containers. There was the joint venture for the new floating dock and of course the agreement with Grindrod regarding the management of the Trans Kalahari Corridor, which is now called quite correctly the Trans Kalahari Express. It’s a major success for the Walvis Bay Corridor Group which Namport actually created five years ago. “We are providing an intermodal blueprint for all corridors. Our plans eclipse anything in the region. The reason is that we have always seen ourselves as a partner of the economy of Namibia and all that participate in it in the first instance. Now we are fulfilling that role in the entire region, making global trade an exciting arena to be in because we will help to make transport more efficient and reduce its cost through our ports and the feeder corridors that service them,” he enthuses. Key growth for Namibia, and with it the ports, will be in cross border traffic, he predicts. “From Zimbabwe, Zambia, DRC and Angola, we see huge potential for our corridors that are servicing these areas for import and export through Walvis Bay mainly but we also have smaller port facilities. Unfortunately there is a lot going into mainly the south of Angola but there is nothing coming out of the country yet to round trip the cost of transport – but the demand for mainly consumer goods means that there is some wealth being created in the areas close to our borders and therefore in the long term this will more than likely be serviced through Namibia. “There are plans to improve the Cunene Corridor, but it is growing without any intervention at present,” he concluded.