The new Dry Port development in Cato Ridge will go a long way towards addressing congestion at the Port of Durban. According to Warwick Lord, CEO of the Cato Ridge Logistics Hub Consortium, the logistics hub located at Cato Ridge will serve a dual function.“ The primary function at this stage of the project development life cycle is to address the congestion at the Port of Durban by moving the distribution point of westward-bound cargo away from the congested area to Cato Ridge.” Lord said a shift in the retail market was already evident, with distribution centres under operation in the Hammarsdale area as well within Cato Ridge.“ The increased container stacks that are required due to the supersize vessels that are calling at ports nowadays will be opened up earlier at Cato Ridge. This means trucks on the N3 between Durban and Gauteng would not have to go to the congested port anymore.” This, said Lord, was in line with international best practice. Where the city and port compete for scarce land around the port, which leads to congestion, a link – be it rail, barge or dedicated trucks on road to an inland port – is required to bypass this. “The request for proposal (RFP) for a long-term lease of the Catcon site, as well as for a rail and terminal operator of the intermodal facility at Cato Ridge has now been closed and adjudication by Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) is awaited. The award of this RFP will then also initiate the process of concluding agreements with Transnet on the shuttle services to be rendered between Cato Ridge and the Port of Durban with the aim of migrating as much as possible of the freight entering and leaving the port from road to rail. This is an essential part of the Transnet Port Master Plan as one of the first steps in addressing the efficiency of the port.” Lord said if the Port of Durban was working efficiently and optimally the need for Cato Ridge would not be as great, but considering the constraints around the port area, the need for the hub was critical. He said moving cargo directly in block trains from the Port of Durban to a logistics hub in Johannesburg was not efficient. Cato Ridge is earmarked to mass evacuate containers out of the Port terminals, thus achieving two main objectives: reducing the number of trucks calling at the port and hence reducing congestion, and improving stacking capacity and equipment utilisation by dramatically reducing shuff ling of containers. The above will improve port efficiency as containers will not have to be sorted at the port but can be done in Cato Ridge. Cato Ridge becomes a hub for sorting, repacking and redirecting containers and furthermore it becomes the arrival and destination for mainline trains, explained Lord. Cato Ridge is the first place outside the port precinct where all three forms of mass transport intersect – the N3 for road, Natcor rail, DJP and NMPP fuel pipeline. “It is an ideal place to develop a logistics hub and develop the required infrastructure without the constraints of a brownfield development. The concentration of infrastructure assets focused on improving logistics is also needed by the industries that create the product that needs to be moved,” explained Lord. “When the enabling infrastructure is created, industry tends to follow – and we have already received significant interest from companies who want to manufacture in Cato Ridge.” According to Stuart Cameron Duncan, product manager for Maersk in southern Africa, addressing congestion at the Port of Durban is of critical importance. “We see value in Cato Ridge and are already seeing a shift in the retail market, with several distribution centres under operation in Hammarsdale and Cato Ridge.” He said the development of solutions that created value along customers’ supply chain by meeting their needs was very welcome.“ Cato Ridge enables our customers to have an alternate solution to minimise the impact of congestion in Durban port and allows customers to choose either truck or rail solutions.” The increased container stacks that are required due to the supersize vessels that are calling at ports nowadays will be opened up earlier at Cato Ridge.– Warwick Lord
