Speculation rife over SA hub port for SAECS

Cape Town or Coega mooted Alan Peat WILL THE new six-ship fleet of the SA/Europe Container Service (SAECS) core service - due to set sail early-2005 - opt for one central port of call in SA? That’s the speculation in the Dyna Liner Shipping Report, as it talks about the 4 500 TEU (twenty- foot equivalent unit) vessels of the DAL, Maersk Sealand, P&O Nedlloyd and Safmarine ship-sharing agreement possibly hubbing in Cape Town (as favourite, said Dyna) or possibly the terminal at the proposed Coega deep-sea harbour. But that’s it, said Barry New, m.d. of PONL in SA. “Purely speculative at this stage,” he added. He doesn’t deny that it could happen. Nor does he reject either of the two named ports, with Coega planned to start operation at end-2004. “But it will depend to a large extent on the conditions of the times,” New told FTW. And, like any other model, there are a host of options that will enter the final equation and this is only one of them. However, immediately after he talked to FTW, New was to fly out to a series of meetings in Europe from some of which firmer decisions on the SAECS service might emerge. If any are as significant as the single hub port, he assured FTW we would be the first to know.