THE PORT of Walvis Bay will have a permanent presence in Johannesburg come September 16, when an office of the Walvis Bay Corridor Group (WBCG), located near OR Tambo International Airport, opens. “Johannesburg is the industrial heartland of South Africa. We are optimistic that users of our ports from Gauteng will continue to grow. Walvis Bay has much to offer importers and exporters, particularly when it comes to savings in travel distance and time, which translates into savings on fuel,” said Johny Smith, CEO of WBCG from his office in Windhoek. “It is definitely faster to ship to and from Gauteng using Walvis Bay than Durban,” said Smith. This is true even though a cargo-laden truck can arrive in Durban in a day, half the time it would take to drive to Walvis Bay. The ultimate determinant of time, however, is congestion – the wide-open and traffic-free passage along the 1800-km Trans Kalahari Corridor to the bustling but congestion-free operations of Walvis Bay compared to the heavy traffic and famous cargo congestion at Durban. “For the past few years we have had ships to and from Europe make direct calls at Walvis Bay, and this is an enormous advantage to Gauteng shippers,” said Smith. Namport notes that a ship departing Walvis Bay docks at Durban in five or six days, but Gauteng shippers will still enjoy a time advantage compared to sending goods directly to Durban by road because their cargo will already be on ship and will not have to endure the loading delays associated with that port. Walvis Bay’s ability to accommodate vessels of 2400 to 3000 TEUs is on par with Cape Town and Durban.
