Cape Town terminal gets the green light

IT’S full speed ahead
for the long-overdue
extension of the Cape Town
container terminal, albeit it
in amended format to that
proposed at the outset.
This was confirmed to
FTW over the weekend by
Transnet National Ports
Authority port manager,
Sanjay Govan, who had
just got the go-ahead from
environmental minister
Marthinus van Schalkwyk.
Transnet has yet to
respond officially to the
rubber-stamping, but as
previously reported by FTW,
changes in the offing will
involve land reconfiguration
to create greater stacking
space, utilising rubber-tyre
gantries to stack containers
higher, moving existing cool
rooms and demolishing nonessential
buildings.
Van Schalkwyk says the
port authority has clearly
motivated the economic
necessity of the terminal
extension and asserts
utilisation of alternative ports
such as Saldanha is not viable.
Transnet’s plan for the
terminal, yet to receive board
approval, revolves around two
phases over five years.
l Deepening the four
container berths from 13.4m
to 14.5 m, allowing for an
additional 1m under keel;
l Reconfiguring existing
Transnet land to provide
additional surfacing, reefer
plug points and new
equipment.
Govan makes clear the
terminal, handling close to
800 000 teus a year, is at
capacity and given the manner
in which it is working, “not
very efficient in its operation.”
He says the reconfigured
plan will allow for around
1.4 million teus a year. “What
is nice is that this represents
not the maximum but the
optimum capacity.”
Govan is loathe to
speculate on cost of
reconfiguration – Transnet
CEO Maria Ramos estimates
R4.5 billion.
Unlike the largely
environmental opposition to
Transnet’s original proposal to
extend the terminal 300m out
to sea, not a single appeal was
lodged with the environmental
ministry over the berth
deepening, on which a Record
of Decision was issued in
August.
What seems clear is this
alternative decision on the
terminal sits much better with
the environmentalists.