Work starts on US$586 million Cape Town container terminal

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Jan 2008

Transnet Port Terminals (TPT), formerly South African Port Operations, has started work on its ZAR4.2 billion (US$586.7 million) expansion of its Cape Town container terminal as part of a five-year plan to increase capacity.The upgrade of the country's second largest container terminal forms part of the parent company Transnet's ZAR28 billion investment plan for port-related projects, within an overall ZAR78 billion investment scheme over the next five years, reports South Africa's Engineering News Online.TPT said the expansion is expected to relieve mounting pressure at the country's ports by enabling the terminal to increase throughput from 740,000 TEU a year to 1.4 million TEU by the end of 2012.Cape Town Container Terminal executive Oscar Borchards said that the main contractors have started work. "Initial work will entail refurbishing the quay and deepening the berth and the Ben Schoeman basin to 15.5 metres," he said.A consortium, made up of Southern African construction firm WHBO and Cape Town-based Civil & Coastal will be responsible for deepening the berth, while Danish subcontractor Rohde Nielsen will do the dredging to allow for bigger vessels.Other construction activities in 2008 include a crane erection site to assemble of the first two new Liebherr ship-to-shore cranes and in the terminal's conversion from straddle carriers to a rubber-tyre gantries (RTG) crane operation. Durban's Pier One is the only South African terminal using high-tech RTGs.