Ahead of the handover of its upgraded container terminal to Terminal Investment Limited (TIL) in a few months’ time, the Port of Walvis Bay is working hard to improve on the last financial year’s bulk and break-bulk figures of 4.4 million tonnes.
According to a Namport official, “Namibia’s manganese success story” through the Port of Lüderitz, continues to record significant volumes for the country’s ports authority, with copper and cobalt also tracking upwards.
Currently berthed at the port is a bulk carrier, the Aruna Berk, busy loading 30 000 metric tonnes of copper concentrate.
She had called at Port Harcourt in Nigeria before making her way to Walvis Bay and is expected to continue on her voyage on Thursday, March 30.
On March 27 it was also reported that another dry bulk carrier, the Solanjo, was expected to berth at the port to load 2 000 metric tonnes of bagged salt.
Since the new terminal’s inauguration in August 2019, Walvis Bay has seen a steady increase in vessel calls at the port, which remains under-capacitated.
Through TIL, the port operator division of Mediterranean Shipping Company, it is expected that this situation will be turned around in the immediate to near future, with estimates that throughput will be at least double the current levels of about 25%.
Whereas it was initially anticipated that TIL would take charge by May, Freight News has confidentially learned that it will be later in the year, at an as yet undisclosed date.
* Don’t miss the special feature on Namibia’s logistics sector, out on May 19.
