A new ZAR8 billion (US$1.13 billion) government-owned container terminal on South Africa's east coast at Coega near Port Elizabeth should be up and running by 2009, said Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin in a Reuters report.
Mr Erwin told media in Cape Town that the facility could have four landing berths and handle six million containers a year, more than twice its original capacity.
South Africa is rapidly modernising ports, with plans to invest ZAR78 billion over the next five years to improve terminals and other infrastructure and revamp rail lines that lead to ports.
Mr Erwin said it was crucial that the terminal be ready in two years time so that supplies could be shipped to a projected Alcan aluminium plant in the Coega industrial zone. Construction on the Alcan plant will begin in 2008.
Mr Erwin told media in Cape Town that the facility could have four landing berths and handle six million containers a year, more than twice its original capacity.
South Africa is rapidly modernising ports, with plans to invest ZAR78 billion over the next five years to improve terminals and other infrastructure and revamp rail lines that lead to ports.
Mr Erwin said it was crucial that the terminal be ready in two years time so that supplies could be shipped to a projected Alcan aluminium plant in the Coega industrial zone. Construction on the Alcan plant will begin in 2008.