Berths 3 and 4 at the Ngqura Container Terminal (NCT), South Africa were opened recently marking a significant step in Transnet’s drive to expand capacity at the port while confirming the company’s position as a leading force in the economic development of the Eastern Cape Province.
Transnet’s investment at the port entailed the building and deepening of the container terminal’s two additional berths to 16 metres, as well as the purchase of port equipment, including two mega-max ship-to-shore cranes and 18 rubber-tyred gantry cranes.
Lynne Brown, South African Public Enterprises Minister, said: “Operationally, this investment is significant to us as it strengthens the terminal’s capability to handle larger container vessels, improve efficiencies, vessel turnaround times and customer satisfaction.
“It also ticks various crucial boxes in our government’s developmental agenda while boosting the Eastern Cape’s role in the broader economy”.
Ngqura is central to Transnet’s strategy of a complementary port system in its effort to develop Ngqura as a major transhipment hub – linking ports in Eastern, Western and Southern Africa with their trading partners.
The expansion has taken NCT’s operating capacity to 1.5 million TEU from 800,000 TEU.
The latest investment in port infrastructure has increased the terminal’s design capacity to 2.2 million TEU.
Over the next seven years, Transnet will spend just under US$2.5bn expanding capacity in its operations in the Eastern Cape Province.
This is 9.6% of the total investment programme and includes the province’s three ports, as well as railway infrastructure.
