Durban Harbour News

Earlier this week, Port of Durban’s marine pilot Rainer Rauntenberg safely steered a car carrier vessel into the port as cyclonic weather conditions battered the Durban beach front. On Sunday, March 12, 2017, Rauntenberg steered the ro-ro vessel under adverse weather conditions believed to be caused by a tropical cyclone Enawo, which struck Madagascar last week. A video is available here. As a result of the rough weather conditions, the Port of Durban had to deploy three tugs to steer in the vessel. In normal weather conditions, one to two tugs are used.

The 9,178 TEU MSC Chicago has become the latest vessel to take advantage of the newly deepened and widened port entrance channel in the Port of Durban, one of Africa’s busiest and largest multi-service ports. The ship is now also the biggest to date to sail into South African waters. Last week the vessel arrived on its maiden voyage to the country en route from Europe and stopped at the Ports of Cape Town, Ngqura and finally Durban. The Port of Durban’s  harbour widening and deepening project was completed in March 2010 and saw the channel depth increased from 12…

When the Zhen Hua No.23 entered Durban harbour in South Africa on Saturday, 11 April 2009 around 0700, it attracted considerable attention due to its immense size of 804 ft long and its beam of 131 ft. Equally interesting were the six pre-assembled harbour cranes weighing a total of 2,540 tonnes onboard the vessel. The vessel is purpose-built to transport abnormal project cargo. Its cargo included two rail mounted gantry (RMG) cranes weighing 285 tonnes each and purchased by Transnet Port Terminals for R36 million apiece. The cranes will be used to improve port-rail efficiency within the busy Pier 1 container terminal. The vessel also carried four ship-to-shore cranes weighing 985 tonnes each, destined for the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

According to reports, there was a buzz of excitement at Dormac on Friday when the keel-laying ceremony for a oil bunker barge commissioned by Smit Amandla Marine signalled the revival of the shipbuilding industry in South Africa. Dormac's empowerment partner, Palisa Investments, owns 25.5 percent in the company, which procures almost 100 percent of its goods and services from black economic empowerment companies. Pim Zandee, the former chief executive of Smit Amandla, said the specialist marine services company, which is the biggest oil bunker supplier in the Durban harbour, chose Dormac to build the bunker barge as it wanted to prove that the work could be done in South Africa. The barge is due for delivery in September or October next year.