Richards Bay hits the thirty year mark

TERRY HUTSON
IF COMMISSIONER Henry Cloete had the blessing of hindsight, he’d have been more careful about what he wrote. As Her Majesty’s Commissioner, Cloete had been sent from the Cape Colony to the then Natal Colony in 1843, and among his duties was a survey of potential harbours to the north of Port Natal (Durban). His travels brought him in contact with the uMhlathuze estuary, later better known as Richards Bay after another British official, which he quickly dismissed as a place that ‘would never amount to anything of importance.’ Fortunately Cloete’s views of the place were not shared by others. Over the ensuing years a number of surveys were carried out, culminating in 1972 with an announcement in parliament that the government intended building a new port at Richards Bay, which was then a small fis hing village. The motivation for the new harbour was that the Transvaal Coal Owners had secured an order to supply Japan with 2.6 million tonnes of coal annually for ten years. Four years later, on 1 April 1976 and just 30 years ago, the mailship SA Vaal preceded in ceremonial fashion by the frigate SAS President Kruger, sailed proudly through the entrance channel to officially open the new harbour. Since then Richards Bay has exceeded all expectations. Within three years it was handling almost seven million tonnes of cargo annually, making use of five berths with a combined quay length of 1500 metres. Twenty years later there were 20 berths and the port was moving 80 million tonnes of cargo annually. In the latest fiscal year 2005/06 ended March 31 this had increased to a record 89 million tonnes, of which 95% was for export. About 69mt of that was for coal Today the port, built on an estuary which would ‘never amount to anything’, handles more than 1700 ships annually. The port also handles 20mt of a wide variety of commodities over and above coal and has fully deserved its position as one of the most important harbours in the southern hemisphere. Considerable ongoing development is planned for the port. An additional berth at the coal terminal is currently under construction, which will gear up Richards Bay Coal Terminal to handle up to 86mt annually, and including for the first time a number of emerging miners. Other projects include a ship repair facility, details of which are currently being awaited. The port will also have an additional bulk liquid handling berth, additional berths for breakbulk and dry bulk, new warehousing, and most interestingly, container handling facilities worked from an existing berth. This latter point has been emphasised by the port manager – the port is not getting a container terminal but a container handling facility. It seems it will be up to market forces to determine how fast that particular project moves. There are those who predict the rise in container handling at this port will be as spectacular as that of coal.