Ngqura set to be Africa transhipment hub

© soleg – 123RF.com

Having created 700 permanent jobs in five years since the NCT started operating at Coega, Transnet Port Terminals Eastern Cape general manager Siya Mhlaluka said the NCT had expanded its capacity to 1.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

This was after receiving a significant investment of R1.1bn for new equipment and infrastructure in the past financial year.

In total, Transnet had invested about R12bn in the development of the entire Port of Ngqura, with the NCT celebrating its fifth year of existence last month.

Mhlaluka said while the port had enough capacity to cater for the demand at the moment, another phase of development would see even further expansions at the NCT.

The NCT had been increasing its volumes by between 18 and 24% over the past three years, from 408314 TEUs in 2010-11 to the targeted 1003540 in the 2014-15 financial year. This will be a jump of 34% from the 736619 TEUs handled in 2013-14.

Mhlaluka admitted that with economic growth slowing down, the ports were feeling the pinch with imports and exports affected but he said this would not stop Transnet's investment in the harbour.

Transnet's latest interim results showed that container volumes decreased by 3.8% compared with last year's volumes from March to September, and an increase in ship turnaround times at all the Eastern Cape harbours, although at Ngqura the turnaround time only increased by a marginal 2%.

Mhlaluka explained that there were some days when the weather had adversely affected operations at the terminal, but it was normal for the windy months, particularly August.

With the protracted strike of Numsa workers earlier this year at the NCT finally put to bed, labour stability had returned to the harbour.

Due to various contingency plans and the help of employees at other ports being called in, operations at NCT were not affected by the strike.

Ngqura handled the second most containers in South Africa in October, with Durban handling the most in the country at 233010 and Ngqura 69853.

Cape Town handled 67470.

NCT is a four-berth operation and also includes a rail operation, with two rail mounted gantry cranes and four rail tracks and one locomotive run-around track.

Mhlaluka said NCT, like the rest of the port, was gearing up for the export of manganese.

Source: Herald