South Africa opens Ngqura Container Terminal in August

THE new Ngqura container terminal outside Port Elizabeth on South Africa's Indian Ocean coast is expected to begin normal operations in August, according to Transnet Port Terminals executive manager Siyabulela Mhlaluka.

Mr Mhlaluka said phase one of port construction has been completed and that to date more than ZAR10 billion (US$1.19 billion) has been invested in developing the new 6,000 hectare box terminal.

Transnet said recently that the container capacity would be increased by 32 per cent over five years, which would require an expenditure of ZAR12.7 billion over the period. The additional capacity would mainly be created in the ports of Cape Town, Ngqura and Durban, reports South Africa's BusinessDay.

Initially, the terminal would be able to handle 800,000 TEU annually, which would almost equal the capacity of the Port of Cape Town.

According to the senior executive cited in the report phase two completion is anticipated by 2011-12 and would allow Ngqura terminal to handle two million TEU annually. It would be able to accommodate mega vessels of up to 9,000-TEU, surpassing South Africa's biggest port in Durban, which moves 1.9 million TEU, the report added.

Construction of phase two has started and the work would be speeded up if there were sufficient demand, but volumes have declined slightly due to the economic downturn, Mr Mhlaluka said.

We are now obviously at a very critical stage in this project but have every reason to be highly confident, as we move closer to the experimental operations testing process planned for August and September, followed by our October go-live date, Mr Mhlaluka was quoted as saying, adding that most of the terminal's infrastructure was in place.

Source: Transportweekly