Specialist terminals change the face of Maydon Wharf

Terry Hutson
SEVERAL NEW developments with far reaching consequences have taken place at Maydon Wharf over the past 12 months.
The Wharf is an area of the port originally developed to cater for the growing imports and exports from Gauteng, and over the years a number of specialist terminals have evolved. These include the well-known sugar terminal, several tank farms dealing with chemical products and molasses as well as large modern warehouses handling general goods and forest products.
The latest terminals to open include a fruit terminal, which is a joint venture between Commercial Cold Storage, a subsidiary of the Oceana Group, and SA Port Operations. Known as Maydon Wharf Fruit Terminal (MFT) it has been 10 years in the planning according to managing director Willem Visagie and involved an exchange of properties opposite berths 6 and 7 plus an overall investment of R60m to develop the site into a modern world-class fruit terminal. The first reefer ship, NYK Line’s Procyon, loaded pallets of citrus during June and has since been followed by a succession of other reefer vessels.
The second major development on the wharf is a new wood chipping plant at Maydon Wharf 8, which is still in the making but received its first logs for chipping in August. The plant, known as NCT Durban Wood Chips, will process timber grown in the central and southern KZN regions that will be converted into approximately 360 000 tonnes of export wood chips annually.
This is the fourth wood chip mill in KZN, the other three being at Richards Bay.