Cape Town, South Africa's second largest port, has launched a $613 million expansion project to increase terminal handling capacity and improve port infrastructure. The move comes after Cape Town posted a 13 percent increase in volume last year.
Spearheaded by South Africa's state-owned transport company Transnet Ltd., among the key investments in the expansion of the port's container handling facility is the installation of two quay cranes manufactured by Liebherr of Germany, and the replacement of straddle carriers with rubber tired gantries (RTG) in its container yard operations.
To date, only Durban, the country's largest port, utilizes the more advanced RTGs. A total of 32 RTGS are to be commissioned in Cape Town.
Aside from the equipment, the port's draft will be dredged 10 meters deep and its basin by 15.5 meters deep to accommodate bigger vessels.
Before the end of the year, the terminal marshaling yard would also be converted to a staging area. Nonessential facilities will be demolished and the terminal will be reconfigured to maximize stacking capacity and reefer storage. The expansion project is targeted for completion in five years.
By that time, annual capacity is expected to increase from its current 740,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) to 1.4 million TEUs in 2012.
Transnet assured that while the civil works are ongoing, container handling operations will not be hampered. Containers will be temporarily serviced at the port's multipurpose terminal.
According to Bloomberg, Transnet is spending 28 billion rand to modernize the country's ports by 2012. South Africa's government plans to spend 416 billion rand on infrastructure over the next three years in a bid to boost growth in Africa's biggest economy to six percent by 2010.
A group led by Johannesburg-based construction firm Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon Ltd. will refurbish the container quay and deepen the berths.
Spearheaded by South Africa's state-owned transport company Transnet Ltd., among the key investments in the expansion of the port's container handling facility is the installation of two quay cranes manufactured by Liebherr of Germany, and the replacement of straddle carriers with rubber tired gantries (RTG) in its container yard operations.
To date, only Durban, the country's largest port, utilizes the more advanced RTGs. A total of 32 RTGS are to be commissioned in Cape Town.
Aside from the equipment, the port's draft will be dredged 10 meters deep and its basin by 15.5 meters deep to accommodate bigger vessels.
Before the end of the year, the terminal marshaling yard would also be converted to a staging area. Nonessential facilities will be demolished and the terminal will be reconfigured to maximize stacking capacity and reefer storage. The expansion project is targeted for completion in five years.
By that time, annual capacity is expected to increase from its current 740,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) to 1.4 million TEUs in 2012.
Transnet assured that while the civil works are ongoing, container handling operations will not be hampered. Containers will be temporarily serviced at the port's multipurpose terminal.
According to Bloomberg, Transnet is spending 28 billion rand to modernize the country's ports by 2012. South Africa's government plans to spend 416 billion rand on infrastructure over the next three years in a bid to boost growth in Africa's biggest economy to six percent by 2010.
A group led by Johannesburg-based construction firm Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon Ltd. will refurbish the container quay and deepen the berths.