Sapo won’t oppose ‘greens’ on CT port extension

Expansion plans will simply be shelved RAY SMUTS EXPANSION OF the Cape Town Container will depend on whether the city’s people want it; if not, alternatives will have to be found to move cargo destined for the Mother City port to other facilities. That was the message from South African Port Operations CEO Tau Morwe when he addressed the Cape Town Exporters Club last week. He was referring no doubt to the solitary appeal against the development by the body corporate of Woodbridge Island (an upmarket residential complex near the port), still under consideration by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Morwe said in the event of a ruling against the development – amounting to a total NPA/Sapo investment of R1.9 billion - expansion at the Cape Town Container Terminal would simply not go ahead. “It seems the problem with Cape Town is that environmentalists are not happy with the expansion, so when out of capacity we will have to look at shifting cargo coming into Cape Town to some other place,” he said, agreeing it would boil down to Cape Town ultimately being the loser. On productivity within the Cape Town Container Terminal, Morwe said projects were already underway to bring about an increase in the moves per crane hour from 16 to 20 and the moves per ship hour to 30. The overall success rate of on-time sailings in the Mother City port was in excess of 80%. Asked about three recent crane break-downs (one for two weeks) in the terminal, Morwe told FTW: “In the short term, we would probably have to look at sourcing second-hand cranes.”