South Africa: Richards Bay Touted As Premier Bulk Port

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

28 Sep 2007

SA's premier bulk port, Richards Bay, could soon replace its Durban counterpart as the country's busiest multi purpose harbour, and potentially one of the largest ports in the world, if a planned expansion strategy was adopted, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said yesterday.He told the French South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry that the port of Richards Bay, which occupies 2157ha of land and 1495ha of water, had more open space available for development. The port of Durban, on the other hand, had space constraints.Although the plan was at an embryonic stage, the development of the Richards Bay port could include the capacity to handle containers as well.This would relieve pressure on Durban, which handles 65% of containerised cargo exports and imports in SA."A decision will soon be made with regard to both the ports of Richards Bay and Durban," the minister said.The proposed expansion of the port of Richards Bay comes at a time when state-owned company Transnet  the owner and operator of all seven of SA's commercial ports  is busy with the construction of the new deepwater port of Ngqura near Port Elizabeth in Eastern Cape.The R4,7bn new port will form part of the Coega industrial development zone.Transnet told Parliament's portfolio committee on public enterprises last week that it would spend R18,5bn to increase the capacity of its ports.The planned capital investment formed part of its R78bn infrastructure upgrade programme over the next five years.Richards Bay is SA's premier bulk port.Built in 1976 for exporting coal, it has since expanded into other bulk and break-bulk cargoes. It consists of a dry bulk terminal, a multi purpose terminal and the privately operated coal terminal.Other private operators within the port include several wood chip export terminals and a bulk liquid terminal. The port handles more than 89-million tons of cargo a year.It mainly serves the coalfields of Mpumalanga, as well as timber and granite exporters from Eastern and Northern Cape.The coal terminal is undergoing a refurbishment to increase its capacity to 92-million tons a year.Erwin said although the government welcomed the participation of the public sector in the provision of public infrastructure, it had taken a policy decision to let the parastatals drive the R400bn infrastructure programme.It would be just naive for the government to rely on the private sector for the rollout of such a massive project.French ambassador to SA Denis Pietton said French companies had identified transport, energy and the technology sector as key areas for investment.There are more than 150 French companies in SA.According to the foreign affairs department, total trade between the two countries amounted to R12,5bn in the first half of last year. In 2005, total trade amounted to R22bn.