Another milestone for Cape Town

South Africa’s state-owned Transnet has celebrated a significant milestone in its R5.6 billion (US$811m) expansion of the Cape Town container terminal. On completion, the five-year project will double the terminal’s annual capacity to 1. 4m teu.


Group CEO Brian Molefe announced the company had completed major dredging, deepening and refurbishment work at Berth 602, the second of four berths to undergo such upgrades. The completion of berth 602 saw 720 m of quay wall made available to accommodate two large 305 m vessels along the quay.


“This project signifies our commitment to ensure the competitiveness of our economy as custodians of our transport and logistics infrastructure. The investment, which is part of our R110 billion rolling five-year capital investment programme will not only increase capacity but go a long way towards improving productivity and efficiency at our ports,” Molefe said.


Key aspects of the project include:


Deepening to 15.5m of all four berths, together with the Ben Schoeman Basin.


Reconfiguration of the stack yard to maximise space.


Replacing old STS cranes with eight Liebherr Super Post Panamax cranes with twin lift capability. Six of these are in place to date.


Replacing straddle carriers with 28 Kalmar RTGs


Refurbishment of the quay wall to support the Super Post Panamax ship-to-shore cranes.


Introduction of additional reefer plug points for refrigerated containers, with a total of 2,712 reefer points to be served by gantry cranes.
(Source:http://www.container-mag.com)