The Cape Town container terminal transformation is well underway

The transformation of Cape Town’s Container Terminal is continuing under the R5.4bn (US$768m) expansion programme that is currently underway and which will almost double the terminal’s exiting capacity when it is completed in 2012.

Major dredging, deepening and refurbishment work on the second of four berths will be completed by May 2011. The first 100 m of Berth 602 was recently handed over to terminal operators and coupled with the already refurbished Berth 601, has provided the terminal with 420 m of berth space to accommodate one large 305 m vessel along its long quay.

“There have been some challenges. Most significant of these is the complexity of maintaining uninterrupted operations at the container terminal while it is effectively a construction site,” says Velile Dube, Transnet Port Terminal’s Western Province Terminal Executive.

“However we are well on our way towards transforming the container terminal into a modern four berth facility that will assist in meeting the demands of the rapid growth in the container sector.”

The upgrades to all four berths and the Ben Schoeman Basin will enable larger new generation vessels to enter and ‘park’ safely at the container facility.

Inside the terminal, the six new Liebherr cranes that are in place on Berth 601 offer high productivity container handling that is faster and more efficient.

The fleet of straddle carriers in Cape Town is also being phased out in favour of RTGs which make better use of limited space by stacking six rows wide, five containers high and 30 deep. To date 20 RTGs have been commissioned and handed over to the terminal, with the remaining eight scheduled for handover between the end of September and the end of October.

Four more RTGs and some of the straddle carriers are being transferred to Durban’s container terminals.

Refrigerated containers, or reefers, will benefit from the handing over on August 26 of 864 reefer plug points in reefer block 1. The overall expansion programme will result in three reefer stacks with a total of 2,712 reefer points.

Dube said the five year expansion project is one of several Transnet projects taking place within South Africa’s container sector, with the aim of creating additional capacity ahead of demand. By 2012, the capacity of the terminal will be 1.4m teu, nearly double its existing 740,000 teu capacity.
(Source:www.container-mag.com)