Questions raised over timing of new dig-out port

Is there justification for the National Ports Authority spending its entire asset base on a new dig-out port? That’s a major question currently doing the rounds in the freight industry in Durban. Questions have been raised over whether the digout port on the old airport site should be constructed now – and if so whether it should be a full container port initially. “Nothing seems to be cast in stone,” Kevin Martin, chairman of the Durban Harbour Carriers’ Association (DHCA), told FTW, “and Transnet is busy consulting far and wide. “I believe we do need another port – just not the one they have designed within the proposed time lines of 2019-2021 for the first vessel berthed.” Martin believes that, with the present vehicle movement restrictions on the Point area of the port, abnormal loads are having to move in the early hours of the morning through town. Also, that the car terminal/ breakbulk quay is in the wrong place. “In light of this,” he said, “it would make sense to move the abnormals/ breakbulk and cars to the digout port – where they would have direct access to the N2 and B route for abnormals – in Phase 1. Further expansion for containers could then be done in a later phase.” By implementing this plan and several other relatively inexpensive changes to the layout and functions in the port, he feels that the existing port could nearly double its existing container throughput. “Present cargoes which are unsuitable could be moved to their new home at the dig-out port,” Martin added, “whilst at the same time creating extra capacity for containers when the redesigned existing port needs it.” The justification for the new port purely as a container hub is the projected container volumes over the next few decades – with Transnet convinced that volumes will grow to an annual total of 12 million containers within the next 30 years. But many senior members of the seafreight industry are casting doubt on just how accurate this forecast is. Dave Watts, maritime adviser to the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff), is adamant that the forecast is rather extreme. “In 35 years, from the start of containerisation, all import cargo that could possibly go into boxes has gone into boxes,” he said. “In that time, the volumes at the Durban container terminal (DCT) have gone up from a stoneflat zero to 2.6 million boxes a year. “There is nothing left that can go into boxes, so we’re purely dependent on natural economic growth. But now we say that in the next 30 years the volume will grow from 2.6m to 12m.” That’s a growth of 361.5% or a compound annual growth of 5.2%. That’s possible, according to Watts, but anything’s possible, he added. “Have all the questions been asked, and have they all been answered? There needs to be discussion at National Ports Consultative Committee (NPCC) level, according to Watts. “But only if the NPCC was truly representative of industry in general, which it’s not at the moment, he added. “It needs the big brains of industry, the ports authority, the SA Ports Regulator, forwarders, labour, shipping lines and all the others in the sea trade to get together and put their minds to it. Otherwise, we might end up with a port running at about a third or a quarter of its capacity INSERT ‘Transnet’s 361% growth forecast for containers in the next 30 years is extreme’ – industry commentator.