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Transnet Port Terminals break record with MSC Sola

25 Jul 2012

The MSC Sola was the biggest container ship to call at a South African port when it visited the Port of Ngqura, 20km north east of Port Elizabeth recently. The mammoth vessel - at 364m long, 45.6m wide and 15.5m deep - presented the opportunity for Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) to deploy six ship-to-shore cranes for the first time ever to load and discharge cargo from a single ship.

It had called at the Durban Container Terminal earlier in July before sailing on to the deep water Ngqura Container Terminal on Sunday, 8 July. The Ngqura consignment of 5 408 mainly transhipment containers was the biggest single load to be handled from any vessel calling at the terminal. It comprised 1nbsp;872 import and 3nbsp;536 export containers.

Terminal executive for the Eastern Cape Terminals, Siya Mhlaluka said two of the eight-strong fleet of Liebherr ship-to-shore cranes had only recently been procured and commissioned to cater for the projected growth in the market's volume demand.

With six cranes in use on the first and second days, quayside operators achieved a record breaking ship working hour (SWH) rate of 153 SWH on day one and 121 on day two. SHW refers to the number of containers moved by the number of cranes working the vessel in one hour.