Arrival of massive container vessel a filip for Port of Ngqura

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

The arrival of the largest container vessel at the Port of Ngqura, MSC Sola, will go a long way to cementing the port as the transhipment hub of the African continent.

This was the sentiment expressed by stakeholders on Monday during a tour of the massive 131 771 ton vessel, which was brought into port on Sunday by female harbour pilot, Xoliswa Bekisa.

The vessel will be off-loading and loading a total of 5 408 containers over the next few days, making it the biggest single load to be handled from one vessel calling at the container terminal.

Acting port manager, captain Neil Chetty, described the vessel's arrival as a historic for the Port of Ngqura.

He says 10 years after Transnet National Ports Authority took the decision to build the port, the Authority is celebrating the arrival of the biggest container vessel to visit South Africa.

"Our focus (TNP) is investing on infrastructure to accommodate the larger, modern types of ships. In investing in infrastructure our commitment there too is to recruitment and training of youngsters into the maritime sector and obviously another big focus of Transnet National Ports Authority is on job creation," he said.

The regional director of Mediterranean Shipping Lines, Arthur Waters, says their vision when the Port of Ngqura was established was that one day massive, modern vessels like MSC Sola, will be calling at the port.

Describing the arrival of MSC Sola as an historic occasion and a boost for the regional economy, Waters said it is now up to Transnet to prove that the port can reach world class standards for productivity.

"For a ship owner its all about turning vessels around. We've got a start, we've got six cranes (loading and offloading containers), I think this is also a first," he said.

Waters says the size of the vessel means that it cannot call at any other port other than Durban and Coega, that why "this is very significant for this port."

"For MSC we hoping that this is the start of many. That we can encourage more and more vessels to call at Coega because of state of the art equipment that it has. We've all been lobbying for this. 70% of our volumes is transhipment so we need more vessels like this," Waters said.

Nelson Mandela Bay executive mayor, who was a special guest on board the vessel, said he firmly believed that the announcement that the Port of Ngqura will be the transhipment hub means this is "the time that we must fly."

"We have to redouble our efforts to ensure that we don't squander these opportunities because these are not permanent, they can come and they can go. But, what becomes important is more coercion by all partners. By doing so we can do a lot in terms of bringing more jobs and economic stability to our region and the rest of the province," Wayile said.