Leonard Neill
THE BIGGEST-EVER consignment of vehicles to arrive in East London was off-loaded from the Norwegian car-carrier Tancred last week, coinciding with the halfway stage in the construction of the port's motor vehicle terminal.
The 705 vehicles, which included several hundred luxury Mercedes-Benzes, Sprinter trucks and chassis, far exceeded the previous record of 300 off-loaded in the harbour earlier this year.
More than 370 of the luxury vehicles were immediately loaded onto specially designed double-decker car carrier trains destined for Gauteng.
The 48 000ton Tancred, which has a carrying capacity of 5000 vehicles, collected the luxury cars in Hamburg, the chassis in Bremerhaven and the Sprinters in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.
What a big change, exclaimed port operations manager Nosipho Damasane. It was so quiet last year but it is getting busy here now. Five car-carriers are due to dock within a month, which is also a first for the port.
She was also upbeat about the progress of the R112 million vehicle terminal which is due to handle its first consignment of Mercedes-Benz right-hand drive C180 exports at the end of September.
The East Bank development, which will result in the container terminal increasing its capacity from 60 000 TEU throughput per annum to 90 000 is due for completion at the end of the month. Construction at the vehicles terminal is at the halfway stage. It all augurs well for the future of East London and its harbour.
The R42,1 million expansion of the container facilities includes additional container handling and transport equipment, as well as the construction of a new access road which will run alongside the route of the existing rail line from East London station.
While DaimlerChrysler SA will be the first customer to make use of the car terminal, Portnet is currently in negotiations with other motor manufacturers. Gauteng manufacturers have indicated a strong interest in the potential of the terminal, says Damasane.
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