The Port of Ngqura was "the fastest growing port in the world" over the 12 months to February this year, Transnet Port Terminals CEO Karl Socikwa said on Wednesday.
Speaking at the inaugural Eastern Cape Ports and Maritime Conference in Port Elizabeth, the CEO said that the port had grown at the rate of 84.5% compared to the 62.1% of second placed Gdansk in Poland.
Socikwa said that the port had "more than doubled" its container volumes year-on-year "thanks to the upsurge in trans-shipment." Containers volumes, he said, had in-creased by 129% year-on-year.
The CEO said that currently there were eight ship-to-shore cranes at the port, adding that an additional four had been procured plus 22 rubber tyre gantry cranes.
He said the intention was to continue to increase the capacity of Ngqura to handle containers and to slowly move this traffic from Port Elizabeth to the new port.
Socikwa said that TPT would invest a total of R6.7 billion in the three Eastern Cape ports over the next seven years.
Speaking at the same conference, Transnet National Ports Authority CEO Tau Morwe said his branch of the Transnet family would invest more than R20 billion in the three ports over the next seven years, of which R15.59 bil-lion would be spent at the Port of Port Elizabeth.
He said that among the short-term plans for the Port of Ngqura was the conducting of a feasibility study for an LNG terminal.
Morwe said this would dovetail with the plan announced by Energy Minister Dipuo Peters to make the Eastern Cape the "energy hub" of South Africa, incorporating renewable energy initiatives, Nuclear 1 at Thyspunt and the oil refinery mooted for the Coega Industrial Development Zone.
In addition, Morwe said, one of the short-term projects would be "to determine industry interest" in a ship repair facility at Ngqura, adding that such a facility would be in a position to take advantage of the number of oil rigs operating on the east coast of Africa that needed repair.
(Source: Metro Minute to subscribe mail metminutes@iafrica.com)
