In the year since it opened, the New Container Terminal (NCT) in Walvis Bay has established itself as a trusted gateway for imports and exports in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), according to Namibian Ports Authority (Namport) acting chief executive officer Kavin Harry.He says the container terminal is helping to establish Namibia as the main gateway for land-linked countries in the region.
"The completion of the new Walvis Bay container terminal has elevated Namibia's transport infrastructure to a well-functioning and high-quality standard. As a result, the road corridors that are linked to local and regional markets have experienced growth in cargo volumes," says Harry.
"The new container terminal increased economic activities during construction of the terminal, and now that it is operational, we have seen the establishment of new vendors providing services to the port community – for example the hospitality industry, transport and logistics, tourism and many more.”
Surrounding land-linked countries have benefited by being able to use the port to receive essential goods, especially during the early stages of Covid-19 when South Africa went into hard lockdown.
According to the Walvis Bay Corridor Group, the Covid-19 pandemic has made business grow for the company as potential clients see the benefits of the corridors and ports.In April this year cargo volumes for the month increased by 40% compared to previous months because ports in South Africa had closed and cargo was redirected to Namibia.
“As a port we have made tremendous progress, transforming a small container terminal into the largest container terminal facility in the Republic of Namibia, capable of handling container ships with more than 12 metres of draught,” says executive: port operations, Raymond Visagie.
“We have continued to invest in expanding and upgrading container handling capacity and capabilities to meet the operational needs and demands of our valued industry partners,” he adds.Namport has set itself a target of handling one 9 000-TEU vessel with the length of 335 metres each month
