Ngqura gets resounding thumbs-up

Four months since its historic launch, the new deep-water port of Ngqura in the Eastern Cape has scored top marks from the sea carriers currently using it. Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the first line to allot commercial containerships to the port, is upbeat. “It’s a good deep-water port, with no congestion, and we are co-operating in helping to develop it,” director Glenn Delve told FTW. “We’ve already got vessels from our European service calling there at least once a week, with trade in and out. “Our future plans include once-weekly calls by ships on our Far East ‘Cheetah’ service – which will be calling there from February 20 onwards, and both loading and discharging cargo at the port.” Delve added that he was happy enough with the landside transportation to and from Ngqura. “A rail access links up with Port Elizabeth as the hub into the main line network,” he said, “and the road structure in and out of the port is fine.” Another enthusiastic user of the port is Mitsui OSK Line (MOL) – with ships from its South America-Far East service having started calls on the eastbound leg late last year. These vessels come from East Coast South America (Ecsa) to call at Cape Town and then on to Ngqura. The line has the convenience of a berthing window allowing it fast access to the port terminal facility, and MOL marketing manager, Iain McIntosh, described the service as excellent. “The port is state-ofthe- art,” he added, “and all electronic, so there’s none of the old nuisance of paper documents. “There’s also a fantastic control room, which is also state-of-the-art – well up to European and Asian standards, which means that the productivity levels are very good.” McIntosh pointed out that even things like crane productivity were measured real-time, and insisted that such toplevel technology should be introduced to the other terminals around the coast. “Also,” he told FTW, “there’s a willingness to work with the lines, and that’s quite a breath of fresh air. I hope that’s an attitude that will rub off on the other terminals.” The next calls planned by MOL will involve the vessels in its SA-West Africa service – with calls at Ngqura for transhipments in and out of the port on their way back to Durban. This, according to McIntosh, is due to start from March. The country’s feeder line sea service, Ocean Africa Container Line (OACL), has no calls at Ngqura currently on its books, according to CEO Andrew Thomas. There just isn’t that much transhipment business in and out of the Eastern Cape, he told FTW, with not much to interest his line – which goes where there’s demand for transhipments. “We do have a feeder to East London and Port Elizabeth,” he told FTW, “but that’s specifically for the SA Europe Container Service (Saecs). “There’s not even enough business in-and-out of PE - the region’s main port up to now – to justify calls at the port, or at least not that regularly,” Thomas said. But OACL is keeping a keen eye on developments at the port of Ngqura. “We’re certainly very interested in what is happening,” he said. “And, if more main-line carriers start developing services, then we’ll be very keen to get in there as a feeder.”