Focus on Coega has had negative impact
TERRY HUTSON
NOT ALL that long ago the port of Richards Bay was
referred to as the African Singapore. It’s an expression
seldom used today except as perhaps a reminder of
more hopeful days – so what went wrong?
The crux of the matter is that some of the port’s
terminals have not performed as well as they once
did. Port users say the major factor influencing this
is under-investment in terminal infrastructure – even
reaching the point where some shipping lines felt
obliged to ‘loan’ equipment to SA Port Operations to
work the cargo.
Happily that is one problem that is now being
addressed.
The export of coal through the port has also been
a disappointment, with underperformance from
the mines and the railway. And yet this was during
a period of talk about providing emerging mining
groups with access to the terminal. Over the past
year RBCT handled well below forecast figures.
On the horizon for the coal terminal however
things are looking up. RBCT’s fifth berth recently went
into service and some clarity appears to have been
reached with emerging miners to determine which
ones will have access to the terminal and to what
degree.
Spoornet for its part will soon begin taking
delivery of 110 new locomotives for the coal line and
has entered into agreements that will see volume
capacity along the line increasing to 78mt annually
– up by 6mt. It will however be another seven years
before Spoornet is able to ramp up to the much
hyped 91mt annually, and even then provided that
contracts are entered into.
Challenges that face the multi purpose and dry
bulk terminals at the port relate partly to a lack of
infrastructural spending by Transnet in recent years.
Business interests in the Richards Bay area believe,
with some justification, that when Transnet shifted
focus on developing the new port at Ngqura it was
at the expense of the Zululand port. They say that
Transnet has only belatedly woken to the realisation
that market forces are often more important than
political ambitions.
But even now, as the realisation hits home that
Durban will run out of container capacity in three
years time, the emphasis remains on diverting excess
container traffic to the Eastern Cape. This while
Richards Bay, Durban’s neighbour and the closest port
to Gauteng, remains without suitable equipment to
handle containers.
According to the port engineers the NPA has
ambitious plans for a short to medium term
expansion programme that includes additional
specialist berths – among them a container handling
area and ship repair facility. In the longer term the
one thing Richards Bay has in abundance is space
and the Port Master Plan envisages the harbour
developing several kilometres inland towards
Empangeni and the N-2 highway.
Sceptics however point to the time already taken over replacing the port
helicopter which crashed in 2005, which they say impacts on the efficient handling
of ships in the port. “Where’s the urgency over anything,” they ask.
Sapo meanwhile has embarked of a programme of re-equipping terminals with
new infrastructure and equipment – the arrival in the past year of a mobile crane
was one of the first positive signs. In another the port’s system of conveyors is being
overhauled or replaced. In another the R800 million expansion and refurbishment of
the dry-bulk terminal is currently under way and that will increase capacity at the
DBT from 14mt to 28mt annually.
Maybe somewhere in the future there’s hope that Richards Bay may again be
thought of as Africa’s Singapore.
