Cape Town Port News

A Russian research vessel which has been prospecting for oil and natural gas in the Antarctic docked in South Africa on Saturday following protests by green campaigners who say its operations in the region violate a treaty banning mineral exploration.Several members of the Extinction Rebellion environmental group held banners reading "Hands off Antarctica" as the polar explorer ship Akademik Alexander Karpinsky arrived as scheduled in Cape Town's port during the morning.Earlier this week, several dozen protesters from Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion demonstrated at the port, saying the ship's seismic surveys in the Antarctic were a threat to marine life in the area and violated a 1958 international agreement.A 1998 amendment to the 55-nation Antarctic Treaty…

Staff shortages caused by an ongoing strike over wages are impacting container and car terminals at South Africa's Durban port, one of the busiest on the continent, a unit of state-owned logistics company Transnet said on Tuesday.Transnet, which manages South Africa's freight rail network and ports, declared force majeure last week after its workers went on strike over a wage dispute.In an update on its website, Transnet Port Terminals said the strike had impacted waterside and landside operations at its Durban port…

South Africa's National Ports Authority (NPA) will operate as a stand alone business under the aegis of state-owned freight logistics group Transnet, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday, as the country tries to overhaul some of the world's worst-performing ports.A report last month ranking container ports by the World Bank and IHS Markit saw South Africa's major ports at the bottom of the list, with Durban faring the worst among local peers by coming in at 349 out of a total of 351 ports assessed globally.The Container Port Performance Index considered the total port hours per ship call,

CMA CGM, the world's fourth-largest container shipping line, will impose emergency congestion surcharges at Cape Town port in July due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus, it has told customers.From July 1 until further notice, it will impose a surcharge of $550 for 20-foot containers and reefers and a $1,100 surcharge for 40-foot containers and reefers, CMA said in the letter dated June 17 that was seen by Reuters.Western Cape province, which includes Cape Town, is the epicenter of South Africa's coronavirus outbreak…

Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) will secure two new workboats by 2022 to boost marine operations at the Port of Cape Town and ensure it is recognized internationally for excellence.The more powerful workboats are expected to improve the port’s ability to maintain marine operations during challenging weather conditions. The engines will be approximately 20% more powerful on the new workboats and the bollard pull will be 80% greater as a result of advanced propeller and rudder designs.The Port of Cape Town presently has two workboats…

The CMA CGM Group, a leader in maritime transport, announced the start of its commercial operations at the Kribi Container Terminal. On this occasion, the CMA CGM BIANCA, 8721 TEUs and 335 meters long, became the largest container ship to call in Cameroon on 2 March 2018. The CMA CGM Group is deploying four new weekly direct services in Kribi to northern Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia. West Feeder Service, connecting Kribi, Port Gentil, Boma, Matadi and Libreville. Thanks to its strategic positioning, the Kribi hub will also significantly reduce transit times. Located in Cameroon, a growing market, the Kribi terminal aims to act…

In line with the West Africa market trend, CMA CGM Group adapts its service offering while continuing to improve its service reliability and cost efficiency. Withdrawal of WAX 2 service. WAX | Operated by CMA CGM with 12 vessels of 4,350 TEU, will discontinue South Africa and Nigeria calls. Instead, the service will add Abidjan Westbound to its current export call with an improved transit time up to 5 days. Abidjan from Shanghai will be reached in 37 days. ASAF | The sole product available on the market to West Africa South Range is operated with 12 vessels up to 9,350 TEU.

The Sturrock Dry Dock in the Port of Cape Town has been a hive of activity recently with a number of interesting vessels berthing at the facility for repairs and maintenance. The mining vessel, mv Debmar Atlantic, owned by De Beers Marine Namibia (Pty) Ltd, recently underwent routine work at the dry dock, carried out by contracting firms. Built in 1978, mv Debmar Atlantic features its own diamond processing plant on board the vessel. During the mining process gravel, bearing diamonds, is airlifted from the seabed to the vessel.

Gottfried Knöbel owns almost 1,500 miniature model ships, many of them are Hapag-Lloyd ships. How did he end up with this collection? In a quiet residential district in Cologne, hundreds of kilometers from the sea, Gottfried Knöbel opens the door of his house to reveal an incredible collection that spans three floors. Just inside the door, in Knöbel’s home office, ships fill a giant glass case: tankers, cargo vessels, containerships and passenger ships. Almost all of them are on a 1:1250 scale, only a few centimeters tall yet tremendously detailed.

To offer a more comprehensive service on the Asia-South Africa trade, Evergreen Line will adjust its existing joint service with COSCO as well as contribute vessels to the service currently operated by K Line, MOL and PIL. Both moves will take effect in October. Evergreen will deploy two 4,200 TEU vessels on both the FAX service operated by COSCO and Evergreen as well as the ASA service, becoming joint service partners with K Line, MOL and PIL. This development of strategic cooperation with Evergreen's service partners will increase the line's frequency of sailings on the Asia-South Africa trade from weekly to twice weekly and add Keelung, Xiamen and Port Klang to its service network.

International specialist in aids to navigation Tideland, and its its South African agent, Marine Data Solutions (Pty) Ltd, has won the contract to supply five SeaBeacon 2 System 6 racons to the South Africa's National Ports Authority, part of Transnet SOC Ltd. The racons will be deployed in various locations around the coast, including the country's six largest ports: Richards Bay, Durban, Saldanha, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London. They will join a large number of Tideland Signal radar beacons already installed in South Africa and other countries all along the African seaboard. Tideland Signal has supplied over 1,000 System 6 racons to customers around the world, one of whom has calculated that cost-of-ownership is less than 5% of the initial investment.

The entire industry had been affected by the euro zone troubles and the dampening of the US economy, and freight rates had been cut to “less than would have been paid in 1995”, according to the company's chief executive in a report in UK newspaper 'The Independent'. Safmarine’s sister company, Maersk, has 9 percent of its capacity out of service at present while 294 vessels in the entire industry have been laid up, with 19 percent less capacity in use on trade between Europe and Asia. Safmarine, originally a South African company, was taken over by Scandinavian group AP Moller-Maersk several years ago although it retains its individual character and is under separate management.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) President: Koichi Muto has announced an improvement of the Asia-South Africa container traffic network with the following changes aimed to meet customer needs by providing direct services and contimuous port coverage. Opening of the new route "ASA" linking Central and South China, Taiwan, South East Asia and South Africa starting on 8th April 2012. MOL will offer a weekly service by joining the existing ASA service operated by Kline (Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha) and PIL (Pacific International Lines).

Fairmount Marine’s multipurpose support vessel Fairmount Fuji has assisted drillship Stena Forth, owned by Swedish Stena Drilling, when passing by Cape Town, South Africa. Fairmount Fuji was contracted to perform several cargo runs. Stena Forth anchored offshore Cape Town for crew changes and replenishments. Fairmount Fuji is equipped with a spacious 280 square meters deck. This makes her ideal for the transport of goods. Fairmount Fuji sailed up and down between Cape Town port and Cape Town anchorage for a number of cargo runs.

Hapag-Lloyd is starting its new weekly service from Europe to South Africa in October 2006. The relevant organization is already in place in South Africa. Hapag-Lloyd is starting its new service from Europe to Africa not with charter ships as originally planned, but after further studying the market as a space charterer from Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), based in Geneva. "As a result of the cooperation with MSC, we can offer our customers considerable service improvements with fixed day weekly sailings and refrigerated cargo capacity," said Tony Firmin, Managing Director Ships and Container Management of Hapag-Lloyd AG at the signing of the agreement with MSC. Hamburg, Antwerp and Le Havre with Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban.

Hapag-Lloyd, which has so far focused mainly on East-West services, is expanding its African network by starting a service to South Africa in mid-October. “The southern and west regions of Africa represent an attractive market for container transport with considerable development potential. We will thus be serving all five continents for the first time in our company’s history,” commented Adolf Adrion, executive board member of Hapag-Lloyd AG, with reference to the start of a liner service linking Northern Europe with ports in South and West Africa. A total of four ships capable of carrying approx. 1,200 standard containers (TEU) and equipped with 200 reefer plugs will be deployed in the new fortnightly service.