South African state-owned logistics group Transnet plans to spend 4.2 billion rand (S$895.2 million) to upgrade infrastructure at Cape Town's port, a senior Transnet official said yesterday.
Port improvements: Durban's harbour, southern Africa's busiest, is also being upgraded
The project, part of the company's five-year 78 billion rand capital spending programme, should start in 2008 and would help meet fast-growing trade volumes that has stretched capacity at all the country's ports.
Durban's harbour, southern Africa's busiest, is also being upgraded and a new container terminal and industrial zone, named Coega, is being built near the southern coast city of Port Elizabeth.
'We anticipate that that's (the expansion) going to see us through to the 2012, 2014 period,' said Moria Moses, Transnet's projects group executive, adding that final approval for the plans was imminent. 'We have aligned the berth with the stack, with the equipment so that we can take on bigger ships, (so) that we have the right equipment to move the volume . . . which will increase to around 1.4 million TEUs per year from 800,000.' A TEU is an average-sized 20-foot-equivalent container unit.
Ms Moses said Transnet had been forced to draft new plans after the department of environmental affairs turned down an original container expansion design, which sought to reclaim sea land.
'We have had approval now from the (environmental affairs) minister for the deepening of berths at Cape Town and we are very confident that we will have a decision around our proposal on reconfiguring Cape Town shortly as well,' she said.
She said Transnet believed it had developed a better option, stacking the containers vertically instead of horizontally, as it redesigned the existing footprint of the container terminal. 'We're sure that (the decision) will be through in the very near future . . . We're sure its pretty imminent,' she added.
After Durban, the port at Cape Town - South Africa's main tourist city - is the second largest container facility in the country, and is the main export centre for South African fruit and vegetables.
Port improvements: Durban's harbour, southern Africa's busiest, is also being upgraded
The project, part of the company's five-year 78 billion rand capital spending programme, should start in 2008 and would help meet fast-growing trade volumes that has stretched capacity at all the country's ports.
Durban's harbour, southern Africa's busiest, is also being upgraded and a new container terminal and industrial zone, named Coega, is being built near the southern coast city of Port Elizabeth.
'We anticipate that that's (the expansion) going to see us through to the 2012, 2014 period,' said Moria Moses, Transnet's projects group executive, adding that final approval for the plans was imminent. 'We have aligned the berth with the stack, with the equipment so that we can take on bigger ships, (so) that we have the right equipment to move the volume . . . which will increase to around 1.4 million TEUs per year from 800,000.' A TEU is an average-sized 20-foot-equivalent container unit.
Ms Moses said Transnet had been forced to draft new plans after the department of environmental affairs turned down an original container expansion design, which sought to reclaim sea land.
'We have had approval now from the (environmental affairs) minister for the deepening of berths at Cape Town and we are very confident that we will have a decision around our proposal on reconfiguring Cape Town shortly as well,' she said.
She said Transnet believed it had developed a better option, stacking the containers vertically instead of horizontally, as it redesigned the existing footprint of the container terminal. 'We're sure that (the decision) will be through in the very near future . . . We're sure its pretty imminent,' she added.
After Durban, the port at Cape Town - South Africa's main tourist city - is the second largest container facility in the country, and is the main export centre for South African fruit and vegetables.