The ports of KwaZulu-Natal
The new dube TradePort being constructed between Durban and Richards Bay will greatly expand the capacity of KwaZulu-Natal to import and export goods. The principal component of the Dube TradePort is a new international passenger and cargo airport, but it is the new facility’s proximity to the harbours of Durban and Richards Bay that give it the edge as a transport and logistics hub.Rail and road links up and down the coast to these two major seaports will make it easy to switch cargo between different modes of transport.Large quantities that arrive by sea can be dispersed in disaggregated volumes at speed by air.
The combined cargo tonnage that passes through Durban and Richards Bay amounts to 78% of South Africa’s cargo. The two harbours are largely responsible for KwaZulu-Natal’s reputation as the transport and logistics hub of South Africa.
Transnet’s huge infrastructure-spending drive is under way in KwaZulu-Natal and nationally. The province’s harbours and railways are all receiving injections of cash for developments in sync with provincial government priorities. When he was the provinicial MEC for Finance, the current premier, Dr Zweli Mkhize, said in his 2008/09 budget speech: ‘Infrastructure development is the foundation for economic growth and poverty reduction.’ A figure of R9.8-billion is due to be set aside for infrastructure spend in 2009/10.
Port of Durban
With an average of 83 000 containers passing through the southern hemisphere’s largest container terminal, the Port of Durban is South Africa’s busiest harbour. Uniquely for such a busy industrial undertaking, it is virtually a part of the city’s central business district. A yacht club on the harbour’s northern side gives Durban residents a sense of connection to the body of water, which stretches over 892 hectares at high tide
The Port of Durban has 57 berths and is visited by more than 4 000 commercial vessels every year. Durban’s annual throughput of containers is about one million, more than 60% of the country’s total. Transnet National Ports Authority states that the value of these 31.4 million tonnes of cargo is more than R50-billion per annum. Gross tonnage of ships using the harbour amounts to about 100 million tonnes. The good news for South Africa’s balance of payments is that, where Durban harbour used mostly to import goods, it is now more focused on export.
The Port of Durban handles:
• Two-thirds of all motor vehicles leaving or
entering South Africa
• 65% of South Africa’s sugar exports
• 44% of the country’s break-bulk cargo
• 61% of the nation’s containerised cargo
Durban Port upgrades
Three major projects are under way to upgrade the container terminal, develop new deep-water quays at the City Terminal and convert Pier 1 to handle containers.
The Durban harbour entrance-widening project is ongoing, started in 2007 and being due for completion in 2010. When the harbourwidening project is completed in 2010, it will significantly increase the facility’s capacity, more than doubling the number of twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) that it can handle from 4 000 to 9 000. Both Pier 1 and the Durban container terminal are receiving upgrades. At current volumes, the Durban containerterminal deals with 2.3 million TEUs annually. This will increase to 2.9 million. Transnet Port Terminals has spent R72-million on two massive gantry cranes to improve loading speeds within the harbour.
A total of R2.7-billion will be spent in Durban by Transnet Port Terminals in 2009/10. Apart from the mouth-widening, Pier 1 and containerterminal upgrades, other areas receiving investment are the car terminal (increasing the bays from 13 200 to 14 000) and the Maydon Wharf extension (including an 80 000-tonne capacity maize shed). The first phase of Pier 1 and the new truck staging area have already been completed.
Port of Richards Bay
This harbour was originally built as a coalspecific facility, designed to handle coal volumes sent by special train to the coast from northern KwaZulu-Natal and the province of Mpumalanga. Coal remains important, but the port has diversified.
In fact, the Richards Bay harbour has added a new berth on average every second year. In dealing with 80 million tonnes of cargo annually, it is not only the leading port in terms of volume, it is clearly also the largest port in South Africa.
A strong selling point for the port is its deepwater
infrastructure, encompassing a maximum
permissable draught of 17.5m. Together
with excellent terminal infrastructure and
professional management, this allows for
quick turnarounds. The Port of Richards Bay:
• Covers 2 174 hectares of land
• Covers 1 443
hectares of water
• Handles 60% of South Africa’s seaborne cargo
• Has six cargo-handling terminals
• Has the capacity to export 72 million tonnes
of coal in a year
In spite of these impressive statistics, there are ambitious plans for expansion of the port. Strategic planners point out that further expansion could take place up the uMhlathuze River floodplain, which could make Richards Bay one of the biggest ports in the world.
A port master plan is in place and several options are being explored, including the construction of a repair facility, more berths for break-bulk and dry-bulk, and a new berth to be constructed to deal exclusively with bulk liquid.
The Port of Richards Bay has six cargohandling
terminals:
• The Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT)
is the largest single export coal terminal
in the world. It has a 1.6km-long quay with
five berths and four ship loaders and
handles about 72 million tonnes of
coal
every year. Storage capability amounts
to 6.7 million tonnes.
• Richards Bay Bunker Terminal imports bunker
fuel from Cape Town and Durban.
• Island View Storage deals with bulk liquids
stored in tanks. Richards Bay Bulk Storage
is the company that runs this facility.
• Dry Bulk Terminal is a Transnet Port
Terminals operation. It imports and exports
ores, woodchips and a variety other minerals.
• Multipurpose Terminal handles break-bulk
cargoes such as steel, forest products,
containers, aluminium and granite.
This terminal is also run by Transnet
Port Terminals.
• Private facilities deal with the importation
of liquid pitch and with the export of
phosphoric acid.
Richards Bay Coal Terminal upgrade
A R1.2-billion expansion project is under way to increase capacity at the RBCT for handling a further 19 million tonnes of coal, taking annual capacity up to 91 million tonnes. Transnet is set to spend about R25-billion nationwide in upgrading its ports.
Several contractors were appointed to work on the developments going in to the RBCT expansion. Group Five and Stefanutti Stocks saw to the dams, bridges and roads, SKP was engaged to do civils design work, Siemens was responsible for electrical design and supply while Bateman won the contract to be the coordinating contractor.
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