THERE IS a combination of sceptical, optimistic and undecided attitudes in the shipping industry’s views of the R3.9-billion deep-water Port of Ngqura (Coega) – just south of the existing harbour at Port Elizabeth. Doubts, particularly focused on container traffic, have been expressed ever since the conception of the port. Critics have been especially concerned about the port’s geographical position – rather far from the country’s main trafficgenerating industrial heart in Gauteng. Adding to this is the limited industrial development in the more-immediate surrounding regions – with the doubting Toms pointing to the relatively limited seafreight volumes currently moving in-or-out of the Eastern, Northern and Western Cape regions. One of the continuing sceptics is Durban-based clearing and forwarding specialist, Peter Worman. He told FTW: “As long ago as 2004 you published a letter from me where I stated that the port was a future white elephant and a waste of taxpayers’ money. “A response to this letter was subsequently received from a Coega representative who disagreed with my viewpoint – and he stated the port would break even within seven years.” Another who disagrees with Worman is Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) Port Elizabeth harbour manager Ester Goosen, who has also been appointed to co-ordinate a team of managers and specialists from the various Transnet divisions involved in aspects of the Port of Ngqura. In a statement released to FTW by CDC, she said that the port was fully on schedule to open officially by June, 2009, but it will be in use as a working harbour up to a year before that. Asked if she was concerned about continuing scepticism and speculation that the port and the Coega industrial development zone (IDZ) would be white elephants, Goosen said she could not believe that such talk was still carrying on. “We will be the only port in the country capable of handling the new generation of mega-ships,” she added. “They need special facilities and we will be ideally positioned to meet the requirements of these.” But, Worman added, his main question now is just what investments have been finalised for the Coega IDZ – a critical factor in the port’s future development. An optimist about the port is Andrew Thomas, CEO of Ocean Africa Container Line (OACL). It’s a vital part of Transnet’ capacity expansion programme, he told FTW, and will eventually add extra container throughput capacity of a million teus a year – something which no other SA port can achieve. “With the current container growth,” Thomas said, “we’re going to need Coega. It has to work, assuming that this growth rate continues.” And OACL foresees that it will have its own role to play when the port is upand- running – with the deepwater nature of the harbour allowing it to take large container ships, and with the need for a Southern African feeder service ready to move the containers into shallower draught ports in the region. “We’re very keen to see what happens in Coega,” Thomas said. “Because there should be lots of transhipments there – and we’d want to be there to get our share.” OACL is also monitoring the port development. “We’re talking to Transnet through the SA Association of Ships Operators and Agents (Saasoa),” Thomas added, “so they can let us know what is happening.” The possible problem area at the moment, according to Thomas, is the landside connectivity. With Coega being three times further away from Gauteng than Durban, road transport over such a distance is not really an economic feasibility. “So there will need to be a rail connectivity with the Reef put in place if the port is to develop,” said Thomas. But, while minister of public enterprises, Alec Erwin, has already told parliament that the upgrading of the railway line between Northern Cape and the Coega IDZ –for the transport of minerals for export – is due for completion in the latter half of 2009, little has been added about the Gauteng connection. Amongst the undecided is the multi-line ship-sharing agreement, the SA Europe Container Service (Saecs) – the main seafreight service connecting the two continents. Asked if Saecs would call on Coega – and, if so, when – member line Safmarine’s SA trades executive Alex de Bruyn said: “Coega is not in the current Saecs schedule. But we will consider it once Coega is operational – and we will look at it, as we do any other port in the world, in terms of efficiency, draught, berth capacity and the like.” He was equally noncommittal when asked if Coega was likely to eventually take over from Port Elizabeth. “It’s too early to make that call,” he said, “and depends on a lot of factors – like productivity, transport links to/from the hinterland, and our customers’ acceptance.”
