The new cranes will be manufactured in China but in line with the government's Competitive Supplier Development Programme, the purchase agreement has a localisation component that includes job creation and skills development.
The cranes will be installed at the Pier 2 terminal, which claims to have an average of 23 moves per gross crane hour.
Transnet says the order for the seven new cranes is part of a larger programme that will see the company's fleet of port handling equipment upgraded.
The cranes for part of Transnet's R110-billion infrastructure investment programme planned for the next five years.
Meanwhile, Durban's port statistics for August show that a total tonnage, including TEUs, at the harbour reached 7 525 881 tons with imports contributing 4 905 883 and exports reaching 2 618 998.
Exports at Richards Bay dominated the statistics with 8 029 748 of materials - mainly coal - being shipped from the port. It handled a total tonnage of 8 743 215 tons of cargo in August and imports amounted to 793 909 tons of which 697 982 tons excluded TEUs.
The Richards Bay figures show that there were 439 containers in TEUs carrying imports and 708 with exports.
This compares with imports of 137 313 containers in TEUs at the Durban Container Terminal and 112 289 carrying exports, giving a total of 249 602 TEUs.
