Cape Town Terminal News

[CAPE TOWN – 31 March 2011]  The end of March should see a subsiding of the vicious south-easterly wind that has plagued the Cape and put Cape Town container terminal under serious pressure to keep cargo moving over the last few months. Just the first three months of 2011 have already seen 62 separate wind stoppages totalling 551 hours at the terminal – more than half of 2010’s full total of 964 hours lost to wind over 83 separate occasions. Around nine days or 219 hours were lost to wind in January, 220 hours in February and 101 in March.

Transnet Port Terminal reports that its R5.6 billion, five-year investment plan aimed at increasing the capacity of the Cape Town Container Terminal is progressing according to schedule. Under its reconfiguration program on the long quay, the container stacking yard is being converted from a straddle carrier operation to a rubber tired gantry (RTG) operation. Over the past six months, 16 RTGs have been phased into the terminal and a further 16 RTGs are earmarked to arrive in the second half of this year.