No let up in investment

The National Ports Authority (NPA) has earmarked $106m and $265m respectively,while South Africa Port Operations has set $105m and $192m, at current exchange rates.

In 2005 those figures were $145m from the NPA and $102m from SAPO at average exchange rates for that year.

Meanwhile, Transnet’s five-year capital investment plan earmarks some $3.4bn for ports, under an investment programme that focuses on the replacement of old assets, additional capacity creation and efficiency improvements.

In terms of hardware, terminals are well equipped.Productivity has slightly improved lately but is still far from the productivity in Europe. Durban currently handles some 1.9m teu, some 1.65m in DCT and the rest in Pier 1 terminal.

The latter is currently being revamped into a new terminal which will have a capacity of 700,000 teu.