R6,7m technology boost for Durban harbour crane operators

By: Matthew Hill
Published: 15 May 08 - 17:19

State-owned Transnet Port Terminals, formerly South African Ports Operations, has introduced a R6,7-million crane simulator at Durban's pier-one container terminal to train operators, it said on Thursday.
Operations training manager Willie Coetsee said that the the simulator would increase the safety and efficiency of critical crane operations at South African ports.

In an emailed statement, Coetsee added that the system enabled crane operators to carry out simulation exercises including loading and unloading a vessel under various weather conditions.

Transnet said that the unit was mobile, and would eventually end up at Port Elizabeth, to train crane operators at the Port of Ngqura

Looks like Bayhead expansion of some sorts is still being considered....

--------------------------

Transnet mulls new container options at both Durban and Richards Bay
By: Terence Creamer
Published: 13 Jun 08 - 10:46

Perhaps partly because of the debilitating supply-to-demand misalignment in South Africa's electricity sector, Transnet CEO Maria Ramos, who oversees South Africa's second-largest State-owned enterprise after Eskom, is going to some length these days to stress the increasingly sophisticated nature of planning at the freight-logistics group

Speaking at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, in Johannesburg, recently Ramos revealed that the group, together with the University of Stellenbosch, has developed a freight-demand model, which has materially increased visibility of cargo movements in the country, as well as those variables influencing growth in the sector.

This, in turn, is helping to shape the group's response plans and the corporation's R80-billion, five-year capital expansion of its harbours, railways and pipelines. But Ramos hinted that these investment programmes might even need to be upscaled in light of indicators showing that freight demand could double, or even triple, over the next 20 years.

Best estimates show that freight demand is likely to expand by an average of 4,7% a year over the next 20 years and that the challenge, from Transnet's perspective, is the foster an integrated solution between road and rail, which enables rail to recapture market share.

There is a particular focus emerging in the general freight areas, which yields 75% of Transnet Freight Rail's revenues, but where margins are paper-thin and the reliability of the locomotive and wagons is hampered by the advanced age of the fleet. Indeed rail's share of the significant corridor linking Durban to Johannesburg is estimated at only 21%, which is Ramos' view is, thus, also its biggest opportunity.

The company will, therefore, spend R38-billion between 2008 and 2013 to modernise and expand its rail business, with the five-year investment planned for the Gauteng-Kwazulu Natal corridor, making up R25,3-billion of that. Some 212 new diesel locomotives will be purchase for R56,14-billion, while tests are under way on the first of what could be 50 ‘like new' locomotives to be delivered out of Transnet Rail Engineering's Koedoespoort facility.

"We now have a freight demand model for 95 commodities and how it [the freight] moves across the main corridors," she enthuses.

"We have also stress-tested the model, by plugging in different growth variables to understand what it means for capacity at say, the Durban Container Terminal, or on the rail network. And, if we are facing increases of say, 15% rather than 8%, when would we need to make the capital expansion decision and where should that expansion take place."

She reports that a study has been completed on the expansion of the container terminal at Bayhead in Durban, while another feasibility study is under way for the possible creation of container-terminal capacity at Richards Bay.

The Bayhead feasibility study considered the option of building a new terminal with capacity for six-million containers a year, while a phased expansion at Richards Bay could add capacity for 5,6-million containers a year.

"We will have to make a decision between Richards Bay as opposed to Bayhead in the next eight to 12 months. Because we realise that, if we are going to be growing container volumes in that Durban/Richards bay area by 12% to 15% we have a good idea when it is we will need to have installed capacity.

She says there is also vastly improve visibility of what capacity need to exist in order to feed the port and how much should come in by rail as opposed to road.

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article.php?a_id=135704

News on the cluster...

Durban establishes maritime cluster


The Port of Durban will shortly have a unique maritime cluster akin to a Chamber of Shipping and representative of all aspects of port related economic activity.

The cluster is intended to take the form of an overarching association incorporating not only individual members but also existing associations and forums.

The initiative for the cluster comes from the eThekwini Municipality (Durban) which has already initiated several similar clusters for the motor industry, the furniture manufacturing industry and waste management, but nothing so far on the scale of the vast maritime network of business in and around the city.

Durban is Africa’s leading port and most important gateway for international trade in sub-Saharan Africa. Last year the port handled over 75 million tonnes of cargo, one third of the country’s total imports and exports by sea (measured in tonnes) and 67 percent of the country’s total container trade (2.479 million TEUs from a total of 3.712m TEU).

“The maritime sector in Durban probably encompasses the most significant economic cluster in the local economy,” Trivi Arjunan, manager of the city’s Economic Development Department said recently. “The country is heavily dependent on international trade and it is critical that Durban’s port is recognised as an international trade gateway.”

The initiative is being taken forward by a specially selected task team which has held workshops and one-on-one meetings with port stakeholders in recent months, during which the concept was introduced and explained.

One of the prime motivations for the cluster comes from an historic lack of liaison between port stakeholders, which became self evident in recent years with several major developments in the port and surrounding back-of-port areas. Equally important has been the lack of consultation involving the massive private maritime industry with large development projects taken place in isolation. There has also been the need for a combined marketing initiative for Durban as a port city.

One example of this impasse is in the road network surrounding the port, which has experienced severe congestion and clogging of arterial routes as a result of the phenomenal growth in shipping activity in recent years.

Another key issue has been decision making taken at national level without full and comprehensive input from all the port stakeholders.

To be fair some liaison has taken place but not sufficient for people whose business is affected by the port to feel that they had the opportunity of having a meaningful input into its future direction.

The intention of the cluster is to create an organisation that will not only help facilitate these exchanges but will become the true champion of both the city of Durban and its port, which remain totally interdependent.

As has frequently been pointed out, without its harbour Durban would be just another seaside resort along the KZN coast, whereas it has grown into a key economic and logistics centre and Africa’s major and most busy port - a world leader in its own right.

The broad view of the cluster is the creation of a body that can strategically evolve the total logistics industry – port, rail, road, pipeline and all its attendant constituents, in the identification of priority projects within the industry while raising the profile of Durban as a major port and city in the international arena.

Some of the key sub-programmes that will feature prominently with the development of the cluster include Growth Enterprise, in which joint infrastructure planning and research services are able to combine. At the same time the cluster will strive for excellence in the development of world-class logistics via best benchmarking practices. It is also expected to focus on Enterprise Creation with business planning and transformation services and the setting up of Enterprise Improvement by way of labour productivity and skills development.

In addition the cluster will provide marketing and information services for the advantage of Durban as a port city and economic hub. Emphasis will also fall on the role of maritime education – Durban has the opportunity to perform a unique role on the continent of Africa by way of providing maritime education facilities.

The beneficiaries of these programmes will be everyone not only in the maritime industry but across the broad spectrum of Durban, for the port impacts on so many people making their living in the greater Durban area and beyond that few can say they are not affected.

It has been emphasised however that what the cluster will NOT provide is yet another talk shop or venue to complain and criticise. The development and establishment of the Cluster or Chamber of Shipping (with the name being decided by the cluster) will however have an international impact, as was pointed out by Matthew Flynn, an American consultant based in Hong Kong who has been working with Transnet in the port of Durban for several months and who attended one of the workshops.

Flynn pointed out that by establishing a maritime cluster of this nature the city and port of Durban was sending a loud and strong signal to all other ports and nations around the world that Durban as a port city means business and intends doing it efficiently and professionally.

The maritime cluster will become an independent organisation answering to its constituent members which is intended to include the full cross-section of the maritime industry in Durban. With the oncoming development of the Dube Tradeport adjacent to the new international airport (now under construction) and its linkages with the harbour, the maritime cluster will then assume an even greater role to play in Durban’s economic evolution.

Details of the maritime cluster can be obtained by contacting
talia@urban-econ.com

^^ personally i think it is the best thing for the industry and harbour in YEARS. and will help streamline objectives

Project to change face of Durban Harbour
Tony Carnie
August 20 2008 at 10:41AM

The face of Durban Harbour is changing dramatically, with engineers and construction workers shifting millions of tons of sand, stone and concrete to create a bigger entrance for one of Africa's busiest ports.

The R3-billion project, which is nearing the halfway mark, is scheduled for completion in March 2010.

Both the width and depth of the harbour will be increased substantially as the northern breakwater is demolished and shifted further north. Very little is left of the old northern breakwater, while the new breakwater is advanced steadily further into the sea.

When the project is finished, the entrance width will increase from 110m to 225m, while the depth will be increased from about 12m to 19m in the outer channel.

Some of the rock and rubble at the tip of the Point will be used to build the new breakwater, but about 10-million cubic metres of sand will have to shipped to a designated deep-water dump site off Durban.

According to Transnet group chief executive Maria Ramos, the southern breakwater at the tip of the Bluff will also be raised by about 1,5m and strengthened to cope with increased wave action once the mouth is widened.

In order to predict the changing water dynamics, a large scale model of the harbour mouth was built at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research laboratories in Stellenbosch. The model included a wave generating machine which allowed engineers to anticipate altered wave dynamics and water depth throughout the harbour.

Durban's beach sand-pumping scheme (visible as a semicircular structure at the base of the new north pier) will also have to be relocated further inland. Elsewhere in the port, another R244-million will be spent to resurface Pier No 1, while a project to increase the capacity of the Durban Car Terminal is due for completion next September.

However, a controversial project by the eThekwini Municipality and private investors to build a new small-craft harbour and hotel at Vetch's Pier remains unresolved.


This article was originally published on page 1 of The Mercury on August 20, 2008


http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=vn20080820060815232C831739

Just read an article on ACSA in the Financial Mail. The CEO of ACSA, Monhla Hlahla, mentioned that Transnet had right of first refusal on the current Durban airport site and was the first organsiation to approach ACSA (ahead of the petrolchemical companies adn motor manufacturers) - a digout might be on the card

Just read an article on ACSA in the Financial Mail. The CEO of ACSA, Monhla Hlahla, mentioned that Transnet had right of first refusal on the current Durban airport site and was the first organsiation to approach ACSA (ahead of the petrolchemical companies adn motor manufacturers) - a digout might be on the card

very interesting to hear...is it the latest edition of the mag?

Dysan1 - yup, in the latest copy of the FM

More reasons for a dug-out harbour on the current airport site...

----------------------

Industries in India and Brazil see trade potential in Durban
October 14, 2008

By Jabulani Sikhakhane New Delhi

Brazilian and Indian industry associations have called for a South African port, possibly Durban, to be used as a transhipment point to reduce the cost and the time to ship goods between their countries and South Africa.

The associations have recommended that each of the three countries free their aviation industries to improve air links, and that together they establish a more efficient scheme for issuing business and other professional visas.

These calls were made in submissions by the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (CNI) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to the India, Brazil and South Africa (Ibsa) summit, which began in New Delhi yesterday.

Ibsa was launched in 2003, primarily to raise economic and other co-operation among the three nations. One of their major trade constraints is poor maritime and aviation connectivity.

CNI recommends that each country designate at least one of its ports as a hub for trade among the three nations.

The three countries should increase the efficiency of their port terminals "to reduce the time for loading and unloading of ships and, consequently, the total duration of trips".

The CNI report says: "The main intra-Ibsa cargo transhipment operations should be concentrated in a South African port. For this purpose, a cargo storage structure should be set up next to the port selected, to concentrate the cargo to be used by Brazilian and Indian companies."

It recommends Durban for this purpose because the port already handles 60 percent of South Africa's containerised cargo movements.

CNI's Indian counterpart made a similar proposal for a transhipment point to be established in South Africa. The CII report says that there are no direct shipping lines between South Africa and India, despite their Indian Ocean connection.

"Containers travelling between India and South Africa need to be transhipped to Dubai, Oman, Singapore or Mauritius," says the report.

"The average voyage time of over two weeks for the relatively short distance between India and South Africa, and the frequency of only one departure per week, highlight the poor connectivity between the two countries."

CNI cited imbalances in trade flows among the three countries as another major stumbling block to intra-Ibsa maritime services. "This situation is bound to be aggravated by the tendency of the three countries to trade goods that require different types of ships. These two factors make it more difficult for maritime companies to organise their routes as efficiently as possible."

The new container terminal being built at Ngqura in the Eastern Cape has been earmarked as a potential transhipment hub.

Asked which port would be better suited as a hub and whether Safmarine would redirect cargo from the hubs it is using now, Fred Jacobs, the director of corporate relations at Safmarine, said yesterday: "We have to consult with all the stakeholders involved. Ultimately such as decision will be driven by customer needs."

CNI called for the three nations to sign an open skies pact similar to the one between the US and the EU. It advised that the three aviation authorities encourage their respective airlines to establish commercial arrangements, including code sharing, to increase the frequency of flights between the countries.

The Indian confederation said the three countries should sign a protocol on business and other professional visas. Business associations in each country would certify each applicant, so visas could be issued automatically for certified professionals.

Despite the limitations, trade among the Ibsa countries rose from $4.6 billion in 2003 (R43.7 billion at current exchange rates) to $10.1 billion last year. Ibsa has set a target of $15 billion by 2010.

With additional reporting by Samantha Enslin-Payne


http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4659176&fSectionId=552&fSetId=662

wow awsome.
But what you guys mean by a 'dugout' of the old airport?

Well once the new airport is complete, they must brake the old one down & fill it up with water :D ..........like a massive swimming pool, I did a shitty cut n past job a while back

wow awsome.
But what you guys mean by a 'dugout' of the old airport?

To explain a bit further, ACSA are going to close the current Durban International when KSIA opens in 2010 (although how awesome would it be if the low-cost airlines convinced them to keep it?! Ok ok, its not going to happen...)
Anyway, much of the industrial area around the airport is based on the shipping industry as that is where most of SA's oil arrives. When you go to the airport you always see massive tanks around the airport and across the runway there is smallish refinery that is always spurting out flames of some colour (used to fascinate me as a kid:lol:). What happens is that the tankers are anchored off shore and the oil is piped to the land....
Hence, the area is already being used in a way as a port!

There is a small river that flows past the airport site into the sea making a natural entrance for a possible port (through the ridge), and the airport is definitely the last large site in the Durban vicinity which could be converted for such use. However, there is no doubt that the cost of such an 'digout' would be astronomical.

Transnet use a 20-year planning horizon. Currently they will be able to handle increases in demand in that time period without the digout option, and they certainly wouldn't have the funding available to get started on it soon (like in 2010 / 2011). Thus even though they do have rights of first refusal, I don't see prime land like that standing vacant while industry / developers wait for Transnet to twiddle their thumbs and consider their options.....

Possibly Transnet should consider planning further ahead as this definitely is a now-or-never decision. (well, now being in 2010).

Maybe when the new oil pipe from DBN-JHB comes online in 2010 / 2011 it will add to the debate and spark some more interest in the project. Lets hope.....

Thanks very much for the that. Shit it sounds to be like this could cost 50billion +?

Whats wrong with the system now, where tankers 'unload' the oil out at sea?

I don't think there's any problems with the current system, the point is that there is already a significant maritime / port presence in that exact area already which would help facilitate such a project.... the 'dugout' expansion would be for container ships etc, possibly only the smaller ones which could free up space at the main port. Eg, they could try moving the fishing industry across so that it could work become a secondary port, like Hout Bay in CT. There is no way that the airport site would be big enough to take any oil tankers let alone larger ships that currently use Durban, so it would be a secondary / smaller site and the offshore system would remain anyway. Its just another option to increase capacity by taking some of the load, but in 30 years when Durban really does not have the ability to expand any further this opportunity might be long gone......

Whilst we discuss Swimming Pools for Ships at derelict airports...

An overlooked fact w.r.t. inward expansion for the Port, is this... the entrance & Bay/Harbour only allows for 1 modern freight vessel to make a manoeuvre at a time.

Even with the current widening of the Harbour Mouth.

The widening was necessitated by the next gen. freight ships (for example, those specialised car carriers that traverse the Asian seas), that have a much wider Beam hull than what was the norm 15 years ago. Ships that use Panama & Suez canal for instance, have a narrower Beam, than those that traverse only the Oceans between wide entrance ports.

Looking out at sea on a daily bases, one sees a fair number of ships at anchor, most are not waiting for a berth, but are waiting to be taken into Port.

In every report I've read in recent years, w.r.t. inward expansion of Durban Harbour, ~ the bottom line always reads... to necessitate future growth, turn around times & peak port facility usage, the entrance mouth must be widened to approx +1.5km in width, and a breakwater of 5km in length, give or take, to allow a minimum movement of 5 vessels at a time.

Also, the Bay/Harbour depth would have to be increased to handle such vessels.

So what we are looking at are vessel of the magnitude of 18,000 TEU, displacing 300,000 DWT, 470 meters long, 60 meters wide, 16 meters of draft, and using more than 100 MW (134,102hp) for 25.5 knots, which of course, displaces a fair amount of water when it moves.

Now consider this amount of water moving around in a shallow confined space such as Durban Harbour.

Cheers

RavenX

Absolutely right Raven - Durban is never going to be able to expand enough for multiple ships to use the entrance at the same time. (which is why most of SA's future growth will come from other ports. Coega was supposed to be the big thing, but looks like Richards Bay is far more likely take the excess as it is closer to JHB - there are plans to upgrade the rail line significantly too)

I'm not so sure about entrance / movement restrictions being the bottleneck - berths certainly seem to be more pressing. Keep in mind that ships normally dock at a specific berth so must wait for it to open up. As far as I know, slow movement through the entrance has always been because of the narrow & tricky entrance, which as you say is far too small. Hence the port pilot has to be flown out by helicopter for every ship, and it takes ages to creep past all the obstacles (the submerged WWII anti-submarine 'block' thingies on either side were only removed last year! They were a real hazzard because you couldn't even see them)

Upgrades in the past few years and currently have focussed on this, starting with the new control tower. I don't know if the port has a good website explaining the tower (it should do, just because its so fascinating - the mast height / direction etc explains current conditions such as tide, wind speed etc. Here's a pic:
http://www.askzn.co.za/news/millennium-tower.htm
The main project of widening happening now will not allow multiple ships to pass but should fix the problem of speed in and out... and hence it is (or should be) just efficiency at the berths which remains a problem.

To show the size difference of the main port verses the DIA site, here are images from Google Earth. Once again the size of the entrance might be a problem, although I'm guessing the river would probably be diverted south to make the entrance at the bottom... (the green strip along the coast is quite a high ridge). Keep in mind that at least half the area would be used for infrastructure, which leaves only a tiny space for actual water.

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc67/stevehanauer/Durban%20Point/Durban.png

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc67/stevehanauer/Durban%20Point/DIA.png


With regards to piping of oil to the DIA site vs using the port, here is a quick article from earlier in the year. Seems to indicate that the bottleneck at the harbour is lack of barges...?

The port of Durban may see ex-pipe bunker deliveries, directly to ship, phased out by the end of 2008 as more barge capacity becomes available in the port.

Currently about 60% of bunker supplies in Durban are ex-pipe directly to ship, according to Wendy Landi, manager at Joint Bunkering Services (JBS).

JBS is a joint venture company between the oil companies that supply South Africa's bunker market, and operates the country's bunker fuel storage tanks and pipelines.

To show the size difference of the main port verses the DIA site, here are images from Google Earth. Once again the size of the entrance might be a problem, although I'm guessing the river would probably be diverted south to make the entrance at the bottom... (the green strip along the coast is quite a high ridge). Keep in mind that at least half the area would be used for infrastructure, which leaves only a tiny space for actual water.

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc67/stevehanauer/Durban%20Point/Durban.png

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc67/stevehanauer/Durban%20Point/DIA.png


With regards to piping of oil to the DIA site vs using the port, here is a quick article from earlier in the year. Seems to indicate that the bottleneck at the harbour is lack of barges...?

If the dug-out happens, the entrance will be on the southern side. This was the original mouth of the river but it was diverted into the channel when the area was reclaimed to build the airport and refineries. The sea is very deep close to this original mouth of the river, more than 25meters and this will make a deep port for very big vessels possible.

The deep water was the reason for the placement of the refineries where it is at this stage. It was to ensure deep enough water for the massive tankers to deliver the crude oil for the 2 refineries.

I saw the designs before and will ask a friend at NPA and another at Transnet Projects for the image. I will then add it to this site.

Ah yes, thanks HigerB - that makes much more sense now, and the tankers are always sitting on the southern end there. In fact there is one in this pic too but its just outside of the area I copied....

MSC SINFONIA to cruise in Southern African waters next summer

http://ports.co.za/images/Sinfonia.jpg

Some important breaking news follows confirmation of the sale of the MSC cruise ship RHAPSODY, which we first reported in our daily News Bulletin of 27 October. It appears that Rhapsody is going to Israeli interests at the end of her current South African cruise season next April.

In her place PORTS & SHIPS can reveal that MSC SINFONIA (58,714-gt) will be the new kid on the block next summer. The 58,715-gt Sinfonia, built a mere six years ago, will arrive in Durban in either November or early December 2009 to take on what has become a well-established tradition of summer cruises along the South African and Mozambique coasts.

It is probably true to say that this is the first time that Southern Africa will have a truly modern large cruise ship based in its waters, and not before time dare we say! At 251m in length Sinfonia differs markedly from the likes of Rhapsody, Monterey, Melody, Symphony and Achille Lauro which have preceded her, the others all being either converts from passenger liners or a sort of hybrid between liner and cruise design.
Purists will no doubt be left less than happy at the departure of the so-called traditional design of passenger ships and her replacement with the somewhat uglier box-ship, floating hotel design favoured today, but more importantly the paying passenger is unlikely to give a fig, caring only for what they are getting for their money. And rightly so!

Whether having been designed purely for cruising makes her a better ship for local purposes, only time and experience will tell, despite what the pundits might say. Our guess is that the answer will be yes.

Built in 2002 at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shioyard in St Nazaire in France as the EUROPEAN STARS for Festival Cruises, she passed into MSC hands with the demise of that company three years later, along with a near sister ship MSC ARMONIA (ex EUROPEAN VISION).

MSC Sinfonia carries considerably more passengers than does Rhapsody – 1,566 passengers against 950, along with a crew of 700. Passengers are accommodated in 132 suites, each with private balcony (another first for a South African-based ship), two additional family sized suites without balconies, 371 outside staterooms and another 272 inside including four staterooms for disabled passengers, giving a total of 777 cabins in total.

Staterooms and suites are equipped with air-conditioning, satellite television, mini bar, room safe, radio and 24-hour service.

With a European style decor throughout the ship has a bright and spacious feel in the public areas, possessing all the necessary restaurants, lounges, bars, discos and other amenities including a rather ugly sports centre up topside.

Some criticism will possibly be lodged about the size of the staterooms (13 square metres), although it’s probably true to say that for many passengers on the shorter coastal Southern African cruises this will hardly matter with little time being spent in cabins anyway. As might be expected the suites are somewhat more spacious at 22 sq m.

The second MSC cruise ship operating on the coast this present summer, MSC MELODY will not be returning next summer, according to sources. One wonders if Melody will become the next MSC cruise ship to find her way into hands other than MSC.

MSC Sinfonia will be operated in southern Africa by Starlight Cruises.


http://ports.co.za/images/Sinfonia-suite-balcony.jpg

http://ports.co.za/images/Sinfonia-Sheilagh.jpg

The base of forming a cruise industry in SA

Article appeared in Cape Business report, and as such has a Cape bias, but the points raised for both cities (Durban and CT) are relevant

The cruise liner industry is the fastest growing global tourism sector. The average growth rate of the sector has been 8 percent per annum since 1980. Some 12 million people went cruising in 2006 and the number is expected to grow to 16 million by 2009. The industry is estimated to be worth some US$29 Billion and it sustains approximately 559,000 jobs.

Councillor Simon Grindrod, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic, Social Development and Tourism says: “Given the importance of the industry it is disappointing that Cape Town and Southern Africa have largely failed to benefit from this growth. Cape Town has a long history of welcoming and saying farewell to passenger liners. Many Capetonians remember the era of the Union Castle mailships and the ‘City’ Line passenger vessels making regular calls in Table Bay Harbour.

The time could be ripe to re-establish Cape Town as one of the great passenger liner destinations of the world by promoting itself and the Southern African region as a base for destination cruises.”

During the dramatic increase in the industry worldwide, the current level of cruising in South and East African waters has remained fairly static. Tourism KwaZulu-Natal has made efforts to develop the market and has achieved some success with Starlight Cruises offering cruises from Durban and Cape Town (not quite the whole picture – Starlight ‘pioneered’ cruising from Durban many years ago largely on their own initiative – ed).

This lack of growth in the Southern African market is all the more surprising given the fact that cruise liner operators are seeking new destinations. It is interesting to note that cities against which Cape Town benchmarks itself such as Miami, Vancouver, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore and even Auckland have all been developed as cruise liner destinations. In fact the East Coast of Australia and New Zealand have become popular cruise liner destination bases experiencing 28 percent per annum growth during 2000-2003.

Southern Africa has a wide range of attractions for cruise liners. Cape Town and its surrounds, the Winelands, Addo Elephant Park and the growing number of private game reserves close to Port Elizabeth/Coega, the Wild Coast, Durban from which trips to the Ukhlahamba Drakensberg range is achievable, Hluhluwe-Imfilosi, Isimangiliso/Greater St Lucia Park are close to Richards Bay, the Mozambique coast and islands, Zanzibar, Mombasa not forgetting the stark attractions of the Namibian coast are just some of the attractions on offer. There is so much potential and so much that we could show visitors.

An advantage of cruise liners is that they can berth at ports with limited landside facilities. Modern cruise liners are after all floating resorts. Given this position, areas which have previously been fairly inaccessible to this type of tourist, as well as the traditional tourism nodes, could benefit.

There are three basic segments of the cruise liner industry namely:

* Round-the-World or classic cruises;
* Repositioning cruises, where a cruise vessel is relocating from one home port of a destination and offers a cruise to another destination;
* Destination or area based cruises, where a cruise ship is located within a specific area and is based at a ‘home-port’ in close proximity to the area of its cruise itinerary and returns to the home-port at the end of the voyage.

Fly/cruise tourism is usually available for each of the above categories. This situation limits home-ports to those that have international flight connections. So in the case of South Africa only Cape Town or Durban would qualify as potential home-ports.

At present Cape Town and Durban feature on the schedule of round-the-world cruises and vessels on appropriate repositioning cruises but this is a limited market.

Destination based cruises are by far the largest component of the market and it is this sector that Cape Town should seek to develop. As stated earlier only Starlight Cruises offer destination-based cruises from Durban and Cape Town.

What needs to happen to develop our region for destination-based cruises? Cruise liner passengers are high spending, generally mature in age and importantly often influential in their community. It is therefore unrealistic to expect these visitors to be accommodated in an antiquated cargo shed converted for use as a cruise liner terminal. All of the destination-based cruise liner harbours have state-of-the-art multi-use cruise liner terminals. At present small vessels can be berthed in the V & A Waterfront but if we are serious about developing the market then a custom designed facility needs to be built in Duncan Dock. This is particularly important given that the trend is for cruise ships to be getting longer, wider and taller in order to accommodate more people and generate more revenue for the cruise lines.

Cruise liner terminals are not profitable investments on their own. Given this position the trend worldwide is to construct a multi-use facility that can be used as a cruise liner terminal as well as for other uses. Cape Town has the perfect opportunity at present to develop a stunning multi-use cruise liner terminal by linking this project to the proposed expansion of the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The design of the expansion of the Convention Centre needs to include provision for a multi-purpose cruise liner terminal to be added at a later date. It is quite possible to construct the terminal so that it does not unduly affect cargo operations in the harbour by straddling the gangway across the wharf to meet the point where the passengers disembark. Just imagine how spectacular and convenient for all concerned it will be having these beautiful vessels berthed adjacent to the Convention Centre.

Durban is planning to build a cruise liner terminal as part of the re-development of the Point. If destination-based cruise liner business is to expand in this region then terminals at the potential home-ports of Cape Town and Durban is probably essential. As happened with the construction of the Cape Town International Convention Centre some form of special purpose organisation may be required to access finance for the venture. This is an issue which needs greater research.
In addition, in investigating the provision of better facilities the Southern African region needs to combine its marketing efforts to attract the major cruise liner operators to our shores. We need to find out how the areas such as Australia and New Zealand managed to establish themselves in the industry.

According to research commissioned by Tourism KwaZulu-Natal, North America provides the largest number of cruisers followed by the United Kingdom. Germany is third and is one of the fastest growing markets, so links with Namibia could provide a competitive advantage for the region.

It is also stated in the KwaZulu-Natal commissioned work, that more than 85 percent of cruise passengers believe that cruising is an important vehicle for sampling destinations to which they may return. Approximately 50 percent of passengers expect to return to the places that they visited while on a cruise.

It is important to realise that cruise tourists wish to see the same attractions as every other visitor to the region. Cruising would therefore need to become integrated within other packages offered by the region and marketed accordingly. For example, a popular package offered in Canada is to fly to Calgary to join the Rocky Mountaineer train over the Canadian Rockies. The train journey ends in Vancouver where the tour continues by joining a cruise to Alaska. The cruise returns to Vancouver where the cruiser disembarks and flies back home. As this example shows, with a bit of ingenuity the development of the cruise liner industry can benefit more than just the coastal ports.

Mansoor Mohamed, the (Cape Town) City’s Executive Director for Economic, Social Development and Tourism says: “The industry is dominated by a few major operators. If we can attract one of these major players then perhaps market forces may result in the others needing to follow suit. We need to contact the cruise liner operators to market the region to them and to assess what is required to induce them to include Southern Africa on their list of cruise destinations. Our marketing bodies also need to be prominent at the relevant trade shows around the world to promote the region as a cruise liner destination. Developing Cape Town as a home-port for destination-based cruises will have a major positive impact on the growth of the tourism industry and therefore jobs in the city. However, although Cape Town can play a key role, it is unlikely that one city or region can develop the market alone. It is therefore essential that all appropriate organisations in the region work together to help devise a strategy that will ensure the success of this venture.”

World first for FPT Durban

Good news of improvements with Durban port operations

As the first export terminal in the world to be awarded the 360 Quality Code, FPT Durban, a Capespan subsidiary, will commit all supply chain parties to handle cargo in a way that will promote customer satisfaction, says the company in a statement issued yesterday.

The 360 Quality Code is a new set of standards for specialised reefer shipping companies, cold stores and their service providers to ensure the quality of handling reefer cargo.

“The accreditation instills fruit handling responsibility by ensuring a good temperature regime, plus less cargo handling,” saysFPT Durban general manager Neville de Klerk.

He explained that this global standard would reduce product damage, as well as ensuring both accountability and a quality end-result.

“What’s more, with the 360 Quality accreditation, it’s easy to provide exporters and producers with continual product status feedback. And should quality issues arise, the gaps can be closed promptly. This indeed further enhances South African fresh produce export standards.”

To obtain the 360 Quality Code means not only excellent product handling, but also equipment has to be first-class. “By using terminals that maintain the 360 Quality Code standards, shipping lines can guarantee products arriving at their destination in mint condition,” de Klerk said.

Dr Dawie Ferreira, CEO Capespan Logistics said that having travelled extensively to export terminals around the world, few of them can compare to the Durban port. “The latter definitely deserves the 360 Quality accreditation.”

Launched in June 2005, the 360 Quality Code applies to all perishable and frozen cargoes carried under deck in specialised reefer vessels. The objective is to become the industry standard. With its 20 members, the 360 Quality Association appoints internationally recognised accreditation organisations to conduct the certification. In South Africa, this is handled by the PPECB.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c128/dysan1/Durban-Car-Terminal-ii.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c128/dysan1/Durban-Car-Treminal.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c128/dysan1/Durban-Drama-sky.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c128/dysan1/Durban-KZN-i.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c128/dysan1/Durban-WCC.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c128/dysan1/Durban-Yacht-Mole-Mitch.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c128/dysan1/Durban_Skyline_.jpg

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c128/dysan1/Durbs-2.jpg

love the colours

Nothing showing.

Lmao, it just says "I <3 www.outdoorphoto.co.za"

lol i dunno why it dont work, i'll find a way

If you have the patience you could be a sneak and print-screen/right-click and save them all manually should it allow you to then photobucket them. But eish that could take a while.

ok hope they working now...

Wow! Those are some of the best night time Durbs shots I've seen ever.

hence why they are up here :)

Those are awesome photos :)

One of these days my photography will be up to that kind of quality... hopefully

**speechless**

very nice, see some potential banners there

So I heard on the radio this morning that Transnet is looking for funding from Japan for the harbour deepening.

Durban harbour widening should 
be completed by April 2010

By: Margie Inggs
27th March 2009

Durban’s R300-million harbour entrance widening project, which started in the third quarter of 2007, is due for completion in April 2010, design consultancy Prestedge Retief Dresner Wijnberg director Allan Wijnberg said last week.

He was addressing consulting engineers at the International Federation of Consulting Engi-neers’ Group of African Member Associations conference, in Durban.

The project, which was commissioned by Transnet, will widen the entrance from 120 m to 220 m 
and deepen it from 12,8 m to 
19 m at its deepest point. 
This will allow 9 000-TEU container vessels to safely navigate the entrance. At present, the largest vessels that can be accommodated are limited to 4 000 TEUs.

“This will result in significant cost savings and have a major 
impact on the South African economy,” Wijnberg said.

Durban is the busiest port 
in Africa, handling 8 000 ship movements an hour.


The design criteria required dredging eight-million cubic 
metres of sand to widen and 
deepen the entrance, and reinforcing the existing structures, which are 100 years old. The old services tunnel running underneath the 
entrance also had to be demolished and replaced at a level that would take it out of the equation of any future deepening process.

Wijnberg said that 700 000 m3 of sand moved up the coast every year and that a major challenge had been designing the entrance so that this bypassed the entrance, keeping the channel open.

Another challenge had been to maintain traffic access at a normal rate during construction and to accommodate vessels moving in and out of the entrance while the work was in progress.

“We also had to make sure that the extra wave energy did not negatively affect the berths on each side of the channel,” said Wijnberg.


“Because the old structures were built only on sand, we also had to manage the risk of under-
mining the south breakwater while deepening the entrance.

“One of the challenges was that we were, in effect, sawing the branch we were sitting on because we had to remove the existing structure, store all the rock material so the dredger could come in and build a new structure.”


At the start of the work, the rock material was loaded onto barges and dumped offshore. The new structure also had to be reinforced because it would be subject to more wave energy.

The next challenge, Wijnberg said, would be to shift from the south channel to the new channel to allow the existing channel to be deepened.

The old entrance was the result of a number of attempts to stabilise the entrance to the port during the second half of the nineteenth century. A significant number of them failed and it was finally stabilised in 1900.

The new widening and deepening project aims to provide for the Port of Durban’s development needs for the next 60 to 100 years.

Edited by: Martin Zhuwakinyu

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/durban-harbour-widening-2009-03-27

Yup, Japanese bank will be loaning Transnet R4 billion.

------------------

Transnet, Japanese bank sign in R4bn loan deal

2009/03/27

TRANSNET and the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) yesterday signed a R4billion loan agreement as part of funding the company’s R80bn capital investment programme.

The proceeds of the loan will be used to fund the widening and deepening of the entrance to the Durban harbour, one of the strategically significant projects in Transnet’s capital programme, the parastatal said in a statement.

The untied loan agreement was signed by Transnet acting group CEO Chris Wells and JBIC’s head of finance for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Toshiro Machii.

The project was primarily intended to accommodate larger vessels in Africa’s busiest and largest harbour.

The JBIC had leveraged 40% participation of other Japanese financial institutions, including the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho Corporate Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in the loan, it said.

The JBIC is the international wing of the Japan Finance Corporation, Japan’s policy-based financing institution, which has a mandate to fund projects that support Japanese companies overseas.

“The agreement is in line with our strategy of diversifying our funding sources and raising funds cost-effectively while prudently managing liquidity risks,” Wells said.

“To this end, Transnet continues to tap its current bonds (TN17, 23 and 27) for R500million every fortnight,” he said.

The R80bn five-year capex programme was aimed at extending Transnet’s rail, pipeline and port infrastructure network.

This included building the new multi-product pipeline between Durban and Gauteng to replace the existing pipeline. — Sapa

http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=304257

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3616/3387767737_504d123595_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3625/3386252068_351829d9c5_b.jpg

In what can only be described as a disgraceful waste of Durban`s port facility on the part of Maria Ramos`s management team, the entrance widening and deepening project is one plagued with/by self effacing types who’s aim it is to fill their incompetent pockets with tax payers money.

Wijnburg a partner of PRDW, fails conveniently to mention his companies pathetic attempt to engineer the permanent sand bypass scheme at the entrance to the channel. His firm provided the cost estimates for the project and spectacularly underestimated the cost by several hundred million, only for the magnitude of the underestimate to force Transnet to scrap the entire scheme/engineering which was designed to provide a 300meter pier into the sand trap to the south of the south breakwater, pump the sand under the channel in a dedicated line and deliver it to the beaches to the north. So Transnet now saddled with a scheme they couldn’t afford, knowing full well that the same scheme for dealing with littoral sand at their shiny new COEGA port was not functioning, some 2 years after its installation by the same PRDW team of free loaders, had to pay another enormous sum to PRWD to come up with a alternative scheme9 SEE RECENT PHOTOS OF THE TEMPORARY HOPPER AFTER THOUGHT BUILT ON THE NORTH PIER @ PIXMANIMAGES. Now we are talking in the hundreds of millions of rand here, so the climb down of the Sunday times last week giving Ramos her shiny good by status is clearly a load of bollocks , as the mess she has left at Transnet Projects is coming out to show the real mismanagement and waste of taxpayers funds she oversaw. Ramos gleefully rolled out the programme of work she saw as the way forward over 5 years only to screw the Chinese bidders along the way and the engineering fraternity of Durban who are being retrenched like flies starting on April fools day 09, well Ramos we,ve got news for you, the beans are coming to haunt you.

So, whilst Mr Wijnburg says the entrance project is to be complete in April 2010 is well mis-leading and unacceptable, current planning for a permanent sand by-pass installation is circa 2012, if Transnet can raise the funds, as it appears not due to their bad reputation in the far-east having shafted the bidders from those climes.ie word gets around girl. To finger PRDW alone is unfair; they act in unison with that other crowd of free loaders HMG-JV, HATCH SA, MOTT-MCDONALD and GOBA. Collectively these COMPANIES have failed to deliver the entrance project as promised, especially on the cost front. Hard questions are going to be asked as to why cheaper bids for the work was manipulated so as to ensure RSA bidders became seemingly attractive. Hundreds of millions were washed into the hands of the successful bidders over time. Now as for the performance of the companies executing the works, this is also a question of intrigue as the PRDW TEAM oversee the dredging works from a lets not push them hard stand point, it will affect our international position later, resulting in huge escalation cost penalties to the nation.Just look at the vast amount of dolos and antifer laying around unplaced for a year exposing the breakwaters to the storms and creating one of the worst safety records ever seen on a South African mega project site.

The historical carnage wrecked upon the public through the demolition of the north pier has also not gone unnoticed , as every item apart from a few steel girders and old chain from a warehouse has been scrapped by Transnet, the Port Engineer overseeing the works should be scrapped himself for this blatant shortsightedness. Ancient wooden piles by the hundreds have been sent to paper mills etc, military items sold to metal dealers for high steel mill prices etc

What will be of the Bayhead dreams, pipe dreams at best.

So what will Durban gain when the Queen Mary2 comes down the channel on 22-03-2010, a new vantage point to wave at the super rich or a channel of frequent mega container ships turning the continent into a new major investor destination.

Ramos try answering that one from the comfort of your JHB office suite.

R1,8bn widening project to open Durban up to floating giants
By: Irma Venter
10th April 2009

Once completed, the new, wider Durban port entrance will provide access to 8 000-TEU ships – or 19-container-wide ships – as opposed to the current 4 000-TEU ships, or 12-container-wide vessels, says Durban harbour entrance widening contracts manager John Hopewell.

TEU refers to ‘twenty-foot equivalent unit’, which is the length of a standard shipping container.

The world’s largest container ship is the megamax 14 000-TEU MSC Daniela.

In the 1990s, 5 000-TEU ships were the norm. However, container ships are advancing rapidly in size and capacity, although the true giants of the industry do not visit South Africa.

The R1,8-billion Durban port widening project is a joint venture between Belgian company Dredging International and South African construction company Group Five.

The project started in May 2007 and is due for completion in March next year, says Hopewell.

“The project resulted from the requirement to give access to the port to post- and superpost- panamax ships.”

To achieve this, the harbour entrance is being deepened by 6 m, and the entrance to the port by around 140 m.

On the north side of the harbour the project entails the demolition of existing buildings; the removal of an old services tunnel, as well the existing quay and jetty structures; an excavation of around 140 m behind these structures; the removal of the existing breakwater; and the construction of a new breakwater, using demo- lished materials and imported quarry rock.

The demolition of the existing breakwater and buildings involves around 164 000 m3 of material.

Once completed, the project will have used 1 142 five-ton concrete blocks, 1 755 ten-ton concrete blocks, 550 dolosse, and 242 000 m3 of rockfill on this side of the harbour.

On the south side of the harbour, work entails raising the height of the existing breakwater, reinforcing the sea-side with 30-t and 45-t antifers, and rein- forcing and shaping the lee side, explains Hopewell.

Materials used on the south side will include 4 050 forty-five-ton antifers, 1 160 thirty-ton antifers, and 250 000 m3 of rockfill.

Edited by: Martin Zhuwakinyu

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/port-projects-2009-04-10

WELL WELL, IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG FOR THE SELF EFACING TYPES TO come out in defence of the now proclaimed total waste of tax payers funds, DURBAN Harbour entrance widening and deepening project.

Transnet reneged on their intention to purchase the property intended for the storage of all the containers as highly predicted by Mr Hopewells crystal ball gazing.

Transnet had offered R3 Billion to purchase the old airport site once the new one north of Durban is completed, by the, strangely enough, same contractor. Here transnet would have bankrolled the projects through all these mega ships comings and goings only for the whole business plan to be found to be a crock of Maria Ramos wasteful expenditure, as the loadings and frequency of shipping will only materialize in say 15 to 20 years time.

So, now the large questions will be answered by revisiting the contract awarded to G5, when it could have gone to more efficient contractors, fact, and by a sizeable amount. Ie R300 MILLION.

Ching chong.

dude all your posts sound very bitter?

Sounds like someone with an axe to grind, and will make a mountain out of every molehill.

Sounds like someone with an axe to grind, and will make a mountain out of every molehill.

agree.. bitter employee or something maybe.

Here's some news on that mega ship currently docked in Durbs

----------------------

R72m boost for Durban harbour

April 13 2009 at 04:49PM

By Dasen Thathiah

Port-Rail efficiency in Durban Harbour is set to improve after the delivery of two harbour cranes - valued at R72 million - from China at the weekend.

The rail-mounted gantry cranes were transported by the 245m Chinese vessel Zhen Hua No 23, which arrived on Saturday.

Business unit executive for the Pier 1 container terminal Michelle Phillips, said the cranes - which will be operational by the end of May - would be used to transfer containers between internal road vehicles and rail wagons at a more efficient pace.

"This will substantially cut the turnaround time of containers to and from the terminal," she said.

Reach stackers would soon be replaced by the new, 285-ton machines purchased by Transnet Port Terminals for R36 million each.

The commissioning process for the use of the cranes is expected to take place from this week until the end of May.

The Zhen Hua No 23 - loaded with four other ship-to-shore cranes destined for the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands - was an unusual sight at the harbour, where it will dock for the remainder of the week. It was at first expected to arrive on Friday but was delayed by strong winds.

While the vessel itself was a sight to behold it was the benefits promised by its Durban cargo which were of real interest, said Phillips.

"These cranes are among the final investments that form part of phase one of Transnet's Pier 1 container terminal expansion plans. This phase has seen Transnet provide additional capacity of 720 000 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit containers) to the Port of Durban. Phase two is at the feasibility stage and aims to convert Salisbury Island to create an additional capacity of 800 000 TEUs," she said.


This article was originally published on page 1 of Daily News on April 13, 2009

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=563&fArticleId=4933425

yesterdays Daily News had a pic

The publics funds are surely a cause for concern, especially now that one JZ is entrusted to allocate them as he and his chosen ones see fit .

I use the Transnet infrastructure roll out as a current example of how cronieism and corporate fraud are currently at work in Durban.

Group-5 have huge slices of the three mega projects in Durban, all achieved from favouritism and corrupt practises, whilst being incapable of delivering on the back of massive gains in their profits, as clearly displayed in their most recent reports for 2008.

Should you not have an indepth concern or knowledge of the wastage in full glare in these projects, then please listen, instead of speaking.


Hopefuuly the press get stuck into this orgie of capital amassing, on the part of these inefficient operations and have them called to account for there greed and incompetence. or perhaps a few DA COUNCILLORS NEED TO RAISE A FEW HARD QUESTIONS to really get up the noses of the free loaders around DURBZ.

Dont have a tripod so used the next best thing..........conrete barrier :lol:
http://i41.************/e70whv.jpg
well the ship is hiding behind those cranes (according to the car guard)

I was taking pic's & almost shat myself when I turned around to see this dodgy dude right behind me, he then comes up with this lame story about how he was hijacked n shit and he need R99,50 to pay some dude back for diesel.

Referenced article on the ship delivering more wastful expenditure to the harbour.

Perhaps Phillips could explain why the feasibilities project manager overseeing the salisbury island project has been given a ultimatum to either vark off or get on site sorting out the vark up of a rail line from the coal fields to R-BAY.

Well, let me help the idiot out, they cant even afford to pay for engineers to do feasibilities anymore the underestimated costs of the entrance widening project has spilt up has caused a enormous rethink and Ramos will have to be called to account.

Mr Hopewells sudden article just days after the previous article on the same project in eng news, convieniently underscores the cost of the entrance widening project by at least one BILLION RAND. A school boy could figure that a project awarded at the beginning of 07 attracts escalation of at least 50 to 60 % over 3 years. Hallo, 3 billion just to widen the mouth and a billion to eventually install the permanent sand bypass and hallo 4 billion , which they had to beg the japoz for.

So madame Phillips , salisbury island is nothing more than a pipe dream love, go shopping and forget about the real working world of industry and take that clown over at the council with you incharge of projects.:banana:

...

Wow.. sounding more and more bitter everyday......

Its starting to get amusing now actually

Someone has far too much time on their hands...

PLEASE IGNORE THE ONE LINER BRIGADE.

Referenced article on the ship delivering more wastful expenditure to the harbour.IE POSTS FROM 286 ONWARD.

Perhaps Phillips could explain why the feasibilities project manager overseeing the salisbury island project has been given a ultimatum to either vark off or get on site sorting out the vark up of a rail line from the coal fields to R-BAY.

Well, let me help the idiot out, they cant even afford to pay for engineers to do feasibilities anymore the underestimated costs of the entrance widening project has spilt up has caused a enormous rethink and Ramos will have to be called to account.

Mr Hopewells sudden article just days after the previous article on the same project in eng news, convieniently underscores the cost of the entrance widening project by at least one BILLION RAND. A school boy could figure that a project awarded at the beginning of 07 attracts escalation of at least 50 to 60 % over 3 years. Hallo, 3 billion just to widen the mouth and a billion to eventually install the permanent sand bypass and hallo 4 billion , which they had to beg the japoz for.

So madame Phillips , salisbury island is nothing more than a pipe dream love, go shopping and forget about the real working world of industry and take that clown over at the council with you incharge of projects.:banana:

mmm, this oke. really mate, you arent adding anything to these forums and i dont believe anyone here cares about your onesided rants.

Project Director, who on earth are you talking to because clearly none of us are listening?...

....anger, resentement will kill them......these people are walking time-bombs....:nuts:

PD, I'm a little confused mate; I've read your posts but I can't really understand what you're saying... could you explain it a little better for us please? Maybe write a bit simpler and in sentences so it can be read better.

So far I think you're saying that there are cost overuns on the harbour widening, issues with the rail line from RB to the coal area, and some concerns with transnet's subcontracted costing estimations for the sand pumping project?

Can you explain again? Because I'm sure most readers here will be very interested if these complications threaten the harbour expansion project. Who stands to lose money in these cost overruns and will they prevent the widening and expansion project from being completed?

Also, does anyone know (wrt the Durban Intl. Airport) whether there is any truth in the matter of Toyota expanding there? Obviously the downturn may affect proposals, especially in the auto industry, but perhaps it's still in their long-term interests?

That would be "YOU'RE on the money" not "YOUR".

Another disjointed, confusing post. I'm with Coolidge. Please explain what you're trying to achieve and what the point is in all of this? I'm sure there is valid information in there somewhere - please just put it into context.

Dysan, can you please do something about this nutter. Now he's spamming my profile too. Freak o_O

Project Director : would you mind actually responding to some of the questions posed to you, or are you just going to post nonsense ramblings?

"Project Director" none of those posts have any relevance here and have been removed, please refrain from just posting articles that are not related in here.

Secondly, this is a forum, with discussion, not just random posts, please rather engage with people, so we can try understand what on earth it is that you are on about

this the ship entering with the cranes??

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3343/3435124712_26458f7955_b.jpg

jeez what ever ship that is, its if frikken massive - wonder what its used for?

The green ship in the shot is the trailing suction hopper dredger `Marieke~,she carries 4000m3 of dredged material at capacity, which has been re-deployed from West Africa by the contractor Dredging International of Belgium. DI are the consortium partners of Group-5 who together are 6 months late with the works due to the incompetence of the city managers actions in deliberately preventing the sand hopper from being demolished. Marieke, in turn costs 1 million rand a day to operate in RSA waters, which in turn costs the country due to the actions described above.

Pop over to the link attached and view how the consortium was constrained in dredging any closer to the hopper in fear of undermining the intake line etc.
http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/5%20Sept%202008/DHEW05092008_117.htm

Concern is that employer TRANSNET, has gone into a management vacuum due to the actions of one Maria Ramos, who prematurely departed the scene and with her COO and selected replacement CEO have the harbour at the peril of open contracts exposing Durban taxpayers to all manner of costs which will emanate from the revised tariffs to pay for the new sand pumping scheme which will cost in excess of 1 BILLION rand to install in late 2012.The thinning managegemet at this entity has shown severe underperformance in managing rail assets so needed to feed the harbour that major orders for locos have been delayed by several months attracting escalation they cant afford.see link att

So, Durban can expect angry fishermen who have been promised access to the new north groyne but wont until say 2013.

Delay costs will be sent to sutcliffes office from the Marieke of a million a day and no doubt sent down to the people of Durban.

The red ship has got some transnet goods on.

It would be very nice to still sit at thirsties but its disappeared, aw shame, :cheers:

any comments on the effect to the harbours beauty would be very nice boys and girls.

^^ well thats a better post :) thanx for the insights there mate. I do have fond memories of the run down thirsties area.

Yeah, thanks. Much more interesting and informative. :)

I know sutcliffe is incompotent but dident know he was also sticking his grubby paws into Transnet stuff.

Red ship is the one, its a Chinese vessel thats carrying cranes, 2 of which were for us.

Delay costs will be sent to sutcliffes office from the Marieke of a million a day and no doubt sent down to the people of Durban.


Are you seriously suggesting that the Marieke's demurrage is over a million rand a day?

If that's true then they should certainly have managed the project better, but it seems like an aweful lot! Also, why would the bill land on Sutcliffe's desk? He's the city manager not the quantity surveyor for the harbour mouth widening. Moreover it seems as though from what you've said the real issue lies with Transnet? When Ramos left, the company didn't exactly collapse did it PD? If there was that much risk then Transnet wouldn't have secured the enormous loan from the Japanese (which was secured well after MR's announcement). We all know how difficult it has become to raise finances in the economic downturn. This correlates with increased scepticism and prudence from lenders. Therefore either you, PD, are suggesting that the Japanese are foolish lenders :nuts:, or you're incorrect in suggesting that Transnet is collapsing under the resignation of Maria Ramos. No offense, but I'm not hedging my bets on you (mainly because your grammar isn't up-to-scratch :lol: ).

All-said, I think PD has raised an important issue here: is the widening project proceeding as nicely as it seems to be? Also, will these sand-pumping delays and overruns ruin our precious beaches? I hope not!

Well, the matter goes back to the slinging match between the two (suttcliffe+babe-1) when the bayhead dig out feasibility/EIA was put on hold.

Sutcliffe, threw his toys around when it looked like Ramosnet was going to cancel the dig out of Bayhead due to Sutcliffes refusal to co-operate on logistics issues around the scheme.

Ramosnet( BABE-1), decided to stick it to Sutcliffe and started looking at Richards Bay etc to rather handle the capacity increases.

Minor petty obstructions were instituted by Sutcliffes henchmen toward Ramosnet/BABE -1, ie if you don’t get safety issues at Queens Warehouse sorted out we will have your engineering offices shut down on short notice, traffic issues were being highlighted at the same location etc.

However the ever team player side of Sutcliffe was soon to be shattered when access to demolish the sand by-pass hopper on the old north groyne was denied. Legal paper evolved and Ramosnet was found to be floundering without a scheme to satisfy Sutcliffe.

Now, PRDW the cape based engineer totally stuffed up the original scheme whereby an elaborate albeit non workable scheme would have seen a very ambitious attempt to place a 300mtr pier directly south from the current south breakwater toward the sand trap. From there suck up the littoral debris and pump it under the channel in a pipeline, core drilled into place, for further discharge along the immediate beaches as currently deployed. Only problem being, PRDW assumed that normal industry conditions would exist when this was to be performed, as opposed to the construction boom that occurred and they were found to have underestimated the cost at build time by say 500million.Ramosnet, scrapped the huge EIA, ENGINEERING, YOU name it costs and started again.

Now, couple the delay of not having a sand bypass scheme to a 3 billion rand contractor on entrance widening and you have a recipe for some floor dancing to behold. FAIR PLAY, Sutcliffe held out until as late as possible and Ramosnet took it square in the bean bag.

Net result Durban folks don’t get to use the new north groyne for a good few years further than announced ie say 2013.

Now, add the temporary sand hopper scheme, which alone is costing a couple of hundred mill and the fact that dredged material will be sourced from the mouth and not the pristine material from the sand trap and we will have awful beaches for a good few years to come, let alone the now higher potential to infect the intakes at the USHAKA pier feeding the aquarium.

Oh, what does one have to do to make a few mill a year these days, join ABSA, YOUR FRIENDLY BANK, or get on the blower with a grand idea in the material handling of littoral material from the sand trap to the golden mile.:banana:

Cool one,

Mareikes existence as declared in the contract with Transnet is one million per calendar day, all in.

A few other points, Ramosnet , ie during her time there, went to the markets with all of her skill and raised the current funding, they got 10% of what they were looking for, this was done during the worst period of the crunch but it hasn’t changed much as only absolutely essential funding is coming to light for RSA, ie power stations, as a investment destination the blokes in say China who she nailed and speak daily to the bank that bought 20% of our Standard Bank, don’t really want to know.

Couple the projected downturn in handling volumes from around the country and please believe me Ramosnet is floundering along with a very tight set of figures coming out soon. The poor old Japanesse cant be complaining when they cant give money away for zero interest at home but come down here and flog 4 bill to BABE-1 for 10%, easy cash I say.

Anyone who takes on the roll of CEO after BABE-1, is only going to be the fall guy for Ramos, that’s why the other bugger did a runner at the ministers door, everyone surely knows that one.:bash:

PD.

Guys i will continue to delete posts if DRIVEL is posted.

A wonderful opportunity will never materialize for visitors to Durban Harbor, emanating from the upsizing and upgrading to this magnificent vessel.:ohno:

Clearly MSC have a vision for their activities but unfortunately the harbor operators have another. Space utilization within the port is now identified as extremely valuable so why ignore options like building the new sand hopper underground or a dig out with a cap over it, it takes up a huge area and all it does is hold sand. Oh and needs say 1 person to function it, cruise industry jobs run into the hundreds.

It would have been beneficial to place a new cruise terminal at Berth A ie, next to the NSRI building but that property has been fully designated to the new permanent sand hopper for treating Durban’s beaches.

A far more pleasant experience, for any visitor to the harbor coming in via cruise liner, would have been to take them from the points various activities through to Ushaka and beyond. Instead a warehouse, with a coat of paint, slap bang in the centre of the busy harbour remains the front window of Durban.

I might add that of the comings and goings I have seen most folks are so drunk with fun that they don’t seem to notice but would if they docked at A-Berth.

Pirates seize the POMPEI dredger.


Damn dredging contractor wouldnt listen would they, cutting corners and making a mockery of the widening project.:lol:

Link to good man pixmans shots from late April.

Still no sign of the pirated Pompei stone layer, ones thoughts go out to the crew who must have to endure some really crap conditions.

http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/1%20May%202009/Durban%20Harbour%20Widening%20Project01.html

Project Director, do you know what the purpose of this little 'gap' in the north boundry of the harbour mouth is for?

http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/1%20May%202009/DHEW%201%20May%202009140%20(145%20of%20156)%202009-05-01%2011-11-47.htm

http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/1%20May%202009/DHEW%201%20May%202009075%20(65%20of%20156)%202009-05-01%2010-59-48.htm

Small craft basin ?

Small craft basin ?

Too small for that, and too far away from canals already constructed.

This is a very exciting development for Durbs, both the launch of the sea cruise chapter, and the possibilty of a new cruise terminal. This report is the most concrete confirmation yet that a new passenger terminal is on possibly the cards.

--------------------------

Durban makes way for floating hotels
May 15 2009
By Barbara Cole

A Cruise liner tourism organisation was on Tuesday launched at Indaba to play a key role in bringing more floating hotels to Durban - and the region - and thousands of additional visitors.

At the same time, the Transnet Port Authority in Durban is conducting a pre-feasibility study into the possibility of establishing a new passenger terminal behind the NSRI building.

Cruise tourism was "fairly low key" in the city at the moment, and it had suffered as a lot of time and effort had gone into developing the cargo vessel business.

However, Transnet was committed to rectifying that situation, Ricky Bhikraj, the port manager, said.

About R7,5-million had been invested in N-Shed, the present passenger terminal - an old, converted cargo shed - which included new scanners for handbags and luggage.

Bhikraj was speaking at the launch of the South African chapter of the Cruise Indian Ocean Association (made up of port authorities and tourism bodies), which will promote and grow the industry.

It is only the second branch on the continent (the first is in Kenya), but on Tuesday Ndabo Khoza, the chief executive of Tourism KwaZulu-Natal, said Mozambique was now also interested in starting a chapter.

"We have a responsibility to put ourselves on the map and to make sure people take us seriously," Khoza said.

James Mulewa, managing director of the Kenya Port Authority and chairman of the CIOA, said Africa was an "exotic adventure" which had not been fully exploited.

A record 4,4 million Europeans went on cruises in 2008 and 17 new cruise ships were on order, while the world's largest yacht would be delivered in 2009.

Bhikraj said the pre-feasibility study into the possibility of a new passenger terminal in Durban was well advanced.

http://www.ioltravel.co.za/article/view/4982030


The first pic is the current passenger terminal at N-shed (entrance in front of John Ross block).

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc160/ja65sin/IMG_1573a.jpg


Next 2 images show the NSRI building. Proposed passenger terminal will be next to this building, within walking distance of the Point Waterfront, some of the buildings of which appear in the background. Building with the darker blue roof is the beautifully restored Dredging Services building.

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc160/ja65sin/IMG_1593a.jpg


http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc160/ja65sin/IMG_1594a.jpg

A good location. What will happen to the current one?

No word yet although it would make sense if the Ports Authority uses the pier and N-shed for further expansion.

Project Director, do you know what the purpose of this little 'gap' in the north boundry of the harbour mouth is for

Yeah i have also been wondering what those two "pool like" things are for.

The enclosed 'pool' is for sand pumping, as far as I know.

The pond bolted to the side of the groyne is indeed the temporary sand holding hopper for discharging sand to our beaches.

The feed, believe it or not comes from behind the NSRI building, along the breakwater, which can be seen to be installed in current pics and is processed via the temporary pump house which is just below the gap you guys are referring to.

The gap is a incomplete demolition section from the old hopper station which mike sutcliife delayed and caused a few disruptions around for the dredging operations.

The location of this proposed passenger terminal will have to be not quite as close to the NSRI as folks have mentioned , as full engineering for the second time has placed the permanent sand hopper and plant directly behind the NSRI. As stated before the consultants PRDW completely under-estimated the original design and caused a severe financial burden to the overall scheme and unfortunately I suspect unbeknown to most of Durban this say additional 300 mill cost will be offloaded in the form of higher than expected tarrifs to the city.

Some interesting stuff is about to occure when early next month the shipping channel changes to one hugging the new north groyne, this is require to allow the southern section of the old tunnel to be floated off in 60 ton sections for demolition on shore and final dredging in that area to the full required depth of 19mtrs. Wonder how many more artillery pieces will be located as several have been unearthed to date via the dredgers suction arm.

Good to see that most of the expansion plans for the harbour still going ahead, despite the economic downturn.

--------------------

Car terminal goes into reverse

Utilisation down 37 %, but Durban's capital projects go ahead in anticipation of recovery
May 25, 2009

By SLINDILE KHANYILE

Utilisation of the Durban car terminal has dropped by 37 percent but work to create more capacity is going ahead as scheduled.

The trend in how the terminal is used has also changed, with exports rising and imports declining.

In the 2007/08 financial year, 258 881 cars were imported while exports totalled 122 590 and there were 7 423 transshipments.

But in 2008/09 only 184 511 cars were imported and 5 955 were transshipped, while exports grew to 182 091.

The car terminal has 13 200 bays, which will increase to 14 000 when expansion is completed in November.

Bev Mason, the business unit executive and automotive channel manager at the car terminal, said vehicles were staying longer and ships were calling twice a month compared with three times previously.

Mason said the industry believed volumes would start recovering towards the end of the year, but terminal managers did not expect to see an improvement until 2011.

"But we want to create capacity ahead of demand so if the industry picks up sooner, we will be ready," said Mason.

The car terminal has grown tremendously since it was established in 1996, when it had 1 000 parking slots and vessels waited for two days to load and offload. Now, the ships do not wait and the terminal can handle 100 cars an hour.

The projects under way at the terminal, which also include a fitment centre and a car wash, have a total price tag of R648 million.

The Durban Container Terminal (DCT) is working on projects valued at R1.4 billion, and Maydon Wharf is spending R164m. Work costing R1.9bn has been completed at Pier 1.

Transnet Port Terminals has delayed further expansion programmes that are volume-related by at least a year.


Heavy-duty physical work is continuing while the purchase of equipment needed for projected growth has been moved to the next financial year. Two months ago, Theunis Steenkamp, a portfolio manager at Transnet capital projects, said affected projects at the Durban port were valued at R600m.

Solly Letsoalo, the chief operating officer at Transnet Port Terminals, said: "We looked at time and placed the demand on contractors to say this programme must be fast-tracked because of the growth that was expected.

"But now we have re-scheduled because the pressure is not there any more. We are building at a normal pace and we are still going to do everything within the five years."

Letsoalo said volumes at DCT were running behind last year's 2 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs). He anticipated returning to 2 million TEUs a year within two years and eventually reaching at least 3.6 million TEUs.

A further R2.3bn is being spent by the National Ports Authority to widen and deepen the port entrance to accommodate ships carrying 9 200 TEUs each. At the moment it caters for ships capable of carrying 4 000 TEUs.

Other major projects at DCT include the creation of new berths, the construction of a new rail terminal, new multi-storey parking, procurement of additional straddles and installation of an automated gate.

At Maydon Wharf, a shed for soya beans is being built with capacity for 80 000 tons.

Overall, Transnet Port Terminals is planning to spend R9.6bn over five years creating capacity.

This is part of Transnet's R80.3bn capital expenditure programme for the next five years.

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=561&fArticleId=4997312

Durban terminal gets R1,4bn makeover
MARGIE INGGS Published: 2009/05/26 06:15:30 AM

A NEW R70m rail terminal at the Durban Container Terminal will be commissioned at the end of next month as Transnet Port Terminals continues with capital investments despite the economic downturn.

Solly Letsoalo, Transnet Port Terminals’s chief operating officer, said at the weekend that while volumes were continuing to decline, these were expected to be no more than a “bump” on the long-term graph and that volumes would recover to 2007 levels in 2011.

Volumes at the Durban Container Terminal dropped 15,6% percent from December to February compared with the same period the previous year, but Transnet Port Terminals is continuing with its R1,4b n expansion that includes four key aspects — increasing stack capacity from 13691 ground slots to 17262 ground slots, upgrading the straddle carrier seat, upgrading the staff car park, resurfacing quaysides and moving staff facilities and workshops from the water side to the land side.

“We will catch up with volumes and from 2011 will start to see growth, with a quick recovery after 2011,” he said.

Transnet Port Terminals is also continuing with the R164m Maydon Wharf expansion, which includes a shed to store 80000 tons of maize.

Expansions that have been completed include the R1,9b n phase 1 of Pier 1 and the R140m truck staging area to prevent queuing at the Durban Container Terminal.

Beth Masson, the business unit executive of the car terminal and the automotive channel manager, said the R648m car terminal expansion would increase the number of bays from 13200 to 14000. Of these, 4500 would be covered.

Masson said volumes at the car terminal had started declining from the beginning of last year, but that in two years they should be back at levels from the period before the economic downturn.

“Volumes of cars entering and leaving the car terminal have declined 20%-30%, keeping capacity down to 60%- 75%,” she said.

“However, cars are being stored longer and we have spare capacity to store equipment such as excavators which do not have their own wheels.”

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=71767

Looks like no 2nd harbour for Durbs...

----------------------

No immediate need for second Durban port
01 Jun 2009

South African state transport company Transnet has dismissed the need to build a second port at Durban.

This would have been built on a 560 hectare site currently occupied by an airport.

However, the capacity requirements of major customers suggest that a new terminal won't be necessary for at least another 20 years, says Transnet.

Instead, additional capacity will be provided at new facilities at Ngqura, Cape Town, Richards Bay and at the existing port in Durban.

http://www.portstrategy.com/archive101/2009/june/news_africa/no_immediate_need_for_second_durban_port

DRC has used this port for very long time. but it wont be the case anymore. soon a German company si to deveolpea new deep water Port in DRC's wetsern province fo Bs-Congo. The prject wwill cost $4 Billion USD. The company is just waiting for Government signature. The money is ready. Construction to start after the signature.

But i don't think it overtalke Durban port anytime soo. That will depend on the Congolese development.

Interesting. ^^

fine let buisness (toyota, refinery, perto chemicl cluster etc) expand over the Airport site, great conectivity to N2 and existing idustrial zones.

Dig out bay head as next step to expand Durban, then convert big chunk of Sailsbury island to cargo, and finally go out into the bay to convert sand bank area into additional cargo quays.

Fist stepo is to have a publivc consultantion over what to do with airport under the strategic needs of RSA and Durban and get on with it. Toyota keen to take a chunk and that means invetsment, jobs etc

DRC has used this port for very long time. but it wont be the case anymore. soon a German company si to deveolpea new deep water Port in DRC's wetsern province fo Bs-Congo. The prject wwill cost $4 Billion USD. The company is just waiting for Government signature. The money is ready. Construction to start after the signature.

But i don't think it overtalke Durban port anytime soo. That will depend on the Congolese development.

So Durban will loose all of the current 300 000tons from the DRC in a year .............. less than the daily coal and iron ore transportation through SA ports.

I visited the Congo many times and must tell everybody that a port will not change anything soon. The Katanga province in the South is not linked by road or rail to Kinshasa and the Atlantic ocean of the Congo.

Well, they'll obviously build transportation links when they build the port...

think they have a railink that the Belgians built, but it is in a terrible state, and serves as a "path" for many travellers heading north by foot , moped and bicycle. not sure on the state of the road since democracy though I imagine they are also a bit sorry.I hope mineral money will bring these routes to life for all those in the DRC, even if it means a bit lost out for Durban Harbour

Not much has been built since, the roads are in a shoddy state.

Well, they'll obviously build transportation links when they build the port...

With the current volumes in the DRC it will not even pay to built a gravel road...

I have been involved in African Infrastructure projects for many years and have seen many announcements of the dreams of Africa, unfortunately very few of these projects will ever have a positive financial return and therefor funding can never be arranged.

Sigh.

So Durban will loose all of the current 300 000tons from the DRC in a year .............. less than the daily coal and iron ore transportation through SA ports.

I visited the Congo many times and must tell everybody that a port will not change anything soon. The Katanga province in the South is not linked by road or rail to Kinshasa and the Atlantic ocean of the Congo.

It will depend on how fast the Atlantic Port and the rail link between Ilebo and Kinshasa are built .

Because they have been lots of debate in DRC about building the New port.

With the current volumes in the DRC it will not even pay to built a gravel road...

I have been involved in African Infrastructure projects for many years and have seen many announcements of the dreams of Africa, unfortunately very few of these projects will ever have a positive financial return and therefor funding can never be arranged.

You're right about africa announcing many dreams and only very few are realized. But Todays africa is not that of the 70, 80s and 90s. more and more are taking matters into their own hands and ignore the poisonious IMF/WB advises on how to run their economies. The continent is getting smater leaders as well. Unlike the Cold War Era presidents that were imposed on nations.

You need to visit the Congo Official Thread, Kinshsa under Constrcution thread and Katnga province under Construction thread as well to see what's happeing in DRC. Not that many people are aware of what happening. And it's only been one year of reconstruction so far. DRC is different from the Zaire you knew back then. Look at Angola, Nigeria, Kenya, DRC is on the way as well. The continent is changing and it's not showing any signs of slow down.




Port infrastructure: Over 4 million Euros for the construction of the port of Banana. Tuesday 2nd June 2009

A German company has released 4.5 billion for the construction of the deepwater port at Banana. The German company "Swistae" has just made available the sum of 4 billion Euros (4.5 billion Euros) earmarked for the construction of the deepwater port at Banana on the Atlantic Ocean in the territory of Muanda, Bas-Congo province (western DRC), says a good source to this enterprise.

According to this source, a delegation of experts in port construction of this company is expected soon to Banana via Matadi for feasibility studies before the signing of partnership agreements with the relevant authorities.

For the representative of the German company, the choice made by the managers of this company in the province of Bas-Congo is warranted not only because of peace in the province, but more for the legal framework and structures of control established by the provincial authority in order to protect and secure both national and foreign investments.

Source: cinqchantiers-rdc.com


and here is the reason why the port must be built.


BHP Billiton proposes $3bn DRC aluminium smelter
Allan Seccombe | Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:31
[miningmx.com] -- BHP BILLITON has signed an agreement with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government to investigate the building of a $3bn, 800,000 tonne per annum aluminium smelter in that country.

The smelter could be built in the Bas Congo region of the DRC, using 2000 mega watts of electricity from the proposed Inga 3 hydropower scheme, BHP Billiton said in a statement.

“Of course, the development of the Inga 3 hydropower project and the aluminium smelter project will be demanding. However, we are fully prepared to work with the DRC government to ensure the success of these projects,” BHP Billiton Southern Africa chairman Vincent Maphai said.

Initial concept studies into Inga 3 and the smelter have been completed.

“Work will now start on feasibility studies for both projects,” Maphai said, adding BHP Billiton will fund the feasibility study into the hydropower scheme.

BHP Billiton will pay $20m towards the study in exchange for power to its smelter, Xolani Mkhwanazi, president of BHP Billiton Aluminium Southern Africa, told the Moneyweb Power Hour.

The timing on the smelter was subject to the bankable feasibility study into the projects.

"It's all depends on the outcome of the feasibility study, which would be completed in 12 to 18 months, beyond that there is financing, and building the smelter, which should take about three years, but it all depends on the power station being built successfully," Mkhwanazi said.

BHP Billiton has aluminium smelters in South Africa and in Mozambique, producing 1.3 million tonnes of metal a year.

You're right about africa announcing many dreams and only very few are realized. But Todays africa is not that of the 70, 80s and 90s. more and more are taking matters into their own hands and ignore the poisonious IMF/WB advises on how to run their economies. The continent is getting smater leaders as well. Unlike the Cold War Era presidents that were imposed on nations.

You need to visit the Congo Official Thread, Kinshsa under Constrcution thread and Katnga province under Construction thread as well to see what's happeing in DRC. Not that many people are aware of what happening. And it's only been one year of reconstruction so far. DRC is different from the Zaire you knew back then. Look at Angola, Nigeria, Kenya, DRC is on the way as well. The continent is changing and it's not showing any signs of slow down.



I was lucky enough never to have visited Zaire but were fortunate enough to have visitted the DRC many times, the last visit to Kishasa late last year.

The problem with African development is that everything is done on a nationalistic basis and not on a basis of regional development. The DRC can easily use the Port of Point Noire in the Congo and built a link between the railways in the Congo and Kinshasa. This will give an alternative to Mutadi - the shallow river port currently in use by the Congo.

I sometimes cant believe that the current "leaders" of Africa continue with the Colonial wars of France and Belgium.

ok gents to the sound of some rumba, plz jump back to the DRC thread.

I was lucky enough never to have visited Zaire but were fortunate enough to have visitted the DRC many times, the last visit to Kishasa late last year.

The problem with African development is that everything is done on a nationalistic basis and not on a basis of regional development. The DRC can easily use the Port of Point Noire in the Congo and built a link between the railways in the Congo and Kinshasa. This will give an alternative to Mutadi - the shallow river port currently in use by the Congo.

I sometimes cant believe that the current "leaders" of Africa continue with the Colonial wars of France and Belgium.


DRC has been broke since 1993, Congo-Brazza has been broke for longtime as well. Both of them didn't have any money in the last 20 years. Not to mention the civil wars they went throu.
But there are plans to built a mixed Bridge/Rail Kinshasa-Brazzaville. and it's only 1 mile long.:lol: it wont even cost 200 Million $USD.

DRC people don't want to use Point-Noire Port because the money will go to Congo-Brzza instead of DRC. That why DRC wants this Deep water port so bad. It has nothing to do with nationalistic feeling. Both Congo speack French, Lingala, Kikongo. They both have the same religion. We don't even know who is from where.

It all about Money, why feed your neighbor when you can't feed yourself?
That region Angola, Congo-kinshasa, Congo-Brazzaville has had so much trouble and we are just starting to work. and not fight.

Anyways, Durban port will still be used untill the Lubumbashi-Kinshasa-Matadi-Banana Road and Railroad is complete. the Rosd is Already U/C.

ok gents to the sound of some rumba, plz jump back to the DRC thread.

The topic is about Durban port and SADC. Well you're talking to a member of SADC that uses Durban port.

Relevent discussion.:) Not going anywhere.

COOL,

Did you see this article, nice little EYE OPENER i would say a few months ago.

Bit of a hot potato at the moment is Transnet.

Really should look inward for the issues.

Favouring local contractors when you want to be a global benchmark operator is not going to fit and now the reality is starting to strike home.

May the best man win.:bash:

http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Article.aspx?id=1013165

PD : what does that article have to do with the harbour? It doesn't mention the harbour at all as one of the projects that have had irregularities.

On the assumption that you are refering to the article posted by me, i do believe you overlooked the section refering to the entrance widening project.

:"The allegations include:

l The parastatal being exposed to “unnecessary risk” in a R700-million (or euro equivalent) contract relating to the Durban harbour widening project. Group treasury was not consulted while four invoices were not hedged, thereby exposing Transnet to risk. Due to these and exchange control approvals, payments were late and interest charges by contractors amounted to R605246;

Very interesting that no mention was made of the R350 million paid to the consortum DI/G5 in excess of what the chinese expected to be paid, or the wasted R300 million aborting the sand by pass project for the temporary scheme.

Guess the CEO bun fighters wanted to get something out into the open to cloud the big fires.

Ok, so they made a few technical mistakes regarding invoices and late payments and stuff... kind of not a HUGE problem.. even though it did end up costing R600k.

Maybe those things weren't mentioned, because there doesn't seem to be ANY evidence other than your own assertions that those things happened.

Im sorry but since all we have evidence for is a 600k budget problem in a contract of 700million i miss the point, entirely. thats less than 1 percent.

It seems to me that Project Director takes great joy in bringing up every little mistake constituted out of his seemingly overt sense of negativity towards Durban Harbour developments of any sort.

Actually, probably 98% of your posts are criticism and negativity, Project Director. Now it seems to me that you are incapable of positivity, or am I wrong?

Please pop down to your local government library and access a copy of the Morris E Brookes Report, commissioned post Mossgas development, by the Minister of Trade and Industry.

This will assist many in understanding the depth and breadth of the current post infrastructure investigations and scape goating that is yet to come, in my opinion.

I dont blame anyone for assuming that they are being mis-lead, as it happens, its rule no-1.

I like to think that the facts should challenged by counter fact, so whilst i have a advantage of 2% over the detractors who are 100% critical of my meer 98% alledged negativity i am safe in the knowledge of being a nose in front with the issues.

PD.:banana:

If you're going to present counter-facts as you so call them,

Please post evidence of your counter-facts... because at the moment, they're heresay at best, and more then likely just wrong. You can't post a "fact" then expect people to go and investigate whether its true by goign to the library, you need to back up your facts with evidence.

http://198.54.80.51/search~S7?/dmossgas/dmossgas/1%2C5%2C13%2CB/frameset&FF=dmossgas+project+evaluation&1%2C%2C3

These government projects wont be over until the fat auditor sings.:ohno:

Good MAN PIXMAN comes up with another load of good shots of the action.

http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/9%20June%202009/index.html

mate that link shows pointless drivel with no relation to what we are talking about here, please keep on topic or your posts will be removed

Dysan1, how does the pictorial update fit with the definition of drivel, sorry but youve got me baffled on this one.:bash:

1. saliva flowing from the mouth, or mucus from the nose; slaver.
2. childish, silly, or meaningless talk or thinking; nonsense; twaddle.

–verb (used without object) 3. to let saliva flow from the mouth or mucus from the nose; slaver.
4. to talk childishly or idiotically.
5. Archaic. to issue like spittle.

–verb (used with object) 6. to utter childishly or idiotically.
7. to waste foolishly.


Perhaps you could resort to using the private message area as a moderator.

My fav pic from the bunch

http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/9%20June%202009/img/DHEW%209%20June%202009006%20(6%20of%20121)%202009-06-09%2011-38-48.jpg

Awesome it is,

Interesting that the shipping line into the harbour has`nt moved yet, should be visible on the next update.

Wait till the Queen MaryII trundles down there on 22-03-2010, now that will be a sight to remember.:cheers:

PD.

I wonder how this news will impact in harbour widening, although it seems as if all the crew will be going home. And who can blame them?

--------------

Durban-bound ship freed after plane drops ransom
June 29, 2009 Edition 2

BRUSSELS: Somali pirates had released the entire crew of a Belgian ship seized 10 weeks ago after a ransom was paid, the Belgian government said yesterday.

The 10-member crew of the Pompei dredger were in good health and were sailing the ship to an unidentified harbour, where it would arrive in a few days. The crew members would then fly home.

The dredger was due to be used in Durban's R300 million harbour-widening project.

The vessel was on its way from Dubai when it was captured north of the Seychelles, on April 18.

The Pompei is used for transporting and dumping stones to cover pipelines and create breakwaters using hi-tech "dynamic positioning" equipment.

Belgium Defence Minister Pieter de Crem said the ship's owners had paid a ransom. Pirates had demanded $8 million (R63.5m).

A plane dropped the money into the sea near the vessel on Saturday. About 10 pirates on board abandoned the ship early yesterday.

The ship had a Dutch captain and crew of two Belgians, three Filipinos and four Croatians.

The pirates took the ship to the Somali coast, where they and the crew stayed on board.

Belgian officials said the ship's owners negotiated the release with a middleman. The pirates contacted the crew's family members once to prove that they were still alive.

De Crem said the government had considered military intervention to seize the ship, but decided that it was "not desirable" because it could endanger the crew.

Despite international navy patrols, piracy has exploded in the Gulf of Aden and around Somalia's 3 060km coastline.

Seasonal monsoons had hampered pirate activity recently, and the relative lull was expected to continue until at least the end of August when the rough weather subsided, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

Belgian prosecutors said an attack on a Belgian ship in international waters was a crime that they would investigate. Police would interview the crew and check the ship for forensic and DNA evidence when it reached the harbour.

"We think there is a chance" that some of the pirates might be caught and brought to justice, federal prosecutor Johan Delmulle told reporters. They could face up to 30 years in jail. - Sapa-AP

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5057779

So where's the dredger?

Looks like the dredger is being parked off in some port. Wonder how it's going to get to Durbs.

SA shipping buoyant amid recession
ARTWELL DLAMINI
Published: 2009/06/29 06:32:30 AM


COASTAL trade in South African waters has shrugged off the recession and seems to be the rare bright spot in the gloomy international shipping industry, a local shipping firm said last week.

Andrew Thomas, CEO of Ocean Africa Container Lines, a joint venture between Grindrod and Safmarine, said the South African coastal market remained largely unchanged. By contrast, the global shipping industry was grappling with shrinking world trade volumes and excess new ships.

Thomas said Ocean Africa Container Lines, which handled about 500000 tons of cargo a year, mainly moved sugar, paper, malt and wheat between domestic ports, including Durban and Cape Town.

SA has seven other ports, including Richards Bay, Port Elizabeth, Saldanha Bay and Coega, which seem to be busy due to high demand for bunker services.

Russell Burns, CEO of Unical Bunker Services, a subsidiary of Grindrod, said there was an increase in sales of bunker fuel, boosting a wide range of port support services in SA.

He said the low cost of bunker fuel had motivated shipping lines to divert Europe and east-bound traffic around the Cape of Good Hope rather than using the Suez Canal.

The piracy threat in the Gulf of Aden had also seen a marked increase in traffic calling in Durban for bunker fuel, he said.

Thomas said the company had not seen a significant decline in volumes because basic commodities such as wheat were still in demand.

“We don’t move cars,” Thomas said, alluding to the slowdown in vehicle sales that would have affected its volumes had they been one of the goods the company shipped.

Apart from South African coastal trade, the intra-Africa shipping market seemed to have held up well too.

Thomas said intra-Africa volumes were steadily boding well for Ocean Africa Container Lines, which has a feeder service (carrying other shipping lines’ containers).

The company, which generates 80% of its business from the feeder service, operates container vessels on the southern African coast, trading between ports in Mozambique, SA, Namibia and Angola.

He said feeder or transshipment volumes in Durban were at similar levels to last year’s.

Increasingly, shipping lines, particularly those with services from the Far East, were showing an appetite for servicing ports located north of SA , where previously only a small number of players were willing to operate, he said.

This meant an increased demand for common feeder services such as those offered by Ocean Africa Container Lines.

artwelld@bdfm.co.za

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=74319

Word is the dredger "POMPEI", is headed for Mombasa.

The project has been progressing without the dredger albeit at a slower than planned rate of rpogress, a view of the most recent pictures from pixman shows the depletion of stock piled stone, as is the presence of the jack up spud barge as the temporary replacement working platform to mitigate the effect of the pirates action.

Insurers have a bit of work to assess and well the crew will all live happily ever after.:banana:

Project Director, As you seem to be the man in the know on all things nautical and possibly not bias when it comes to these things but more technical in nature, what do you think of the small craft harbour planned at the point?

Also this "dig out" option at Bay head to get more container space, is it a pipe dream or a real option in the short term??

^^


A great deal of knowledge and skill has been attained through the entrance widening project over the last few years. Hence those in the know and there aren’t many with nautical engineering skill locally, will milk it.

During this period a few local contractors ie Subtech will have measured the degree of risk experienced on DHEW and what opportunities lie ahead for them, ie the small craft harbour. One thing is for sure, the securing of the SCH at Vetches will throw up some interesting, if not testing engineering challenges. TROUBLE IS, THIS WILL BE AT AN ENORMOUS COST.

Hence my view is that the cost alone, once estimated, will be enough to sink the project. The pass on to boat owners will be un-competitive.OK, alot could of the cost could be diluted through the property spin off buy well i would estimate up to a billion RAND to place breakwaters of sufficient strenght to secure the SCH.

Second issue, the dig out at Bayhead.

Two years ago the feasibility study came up with costs of circa R40 billion. That was before the huge increase in materials and oil costs during 08.

This funding in the near term is not in Transnets budgets for capital expenditure , hence the pipe dream can safely be continued for a long time to come. The window was there for that project to fly but Sutcliffe procrastinated over some piddly roads around it and well big players don’t hang around for Sutcliffe types , they move on and the rest is history.

PD.

Why all the anger always at sutcliff only? bayhead was scuppered mainly by transnets internal failings and its lack of dialogue with the city and maritime industry.

Can some of you help me out with this thread, This oke says Tanger port is biggest in Africa and most important, of course he is mistaken

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=432528

This is the data I found in the net, perhaps someone has more accurate data Durban is the busiest general cargo port with 114.723.266 Tons, the busiest container port in Africa with 2.560.000 TEUs is Durban, the second is Port Said in Egypt with 2.150.000. Richards Bay is the busiest port in Africa by cargo tonnage 86.600.000 Tons, Durban handled 74.683.597 tons.
But tanger will have a port that will be able to handle up to 8.000.000 TEUs by 2015.

I can understand Tanger having the capacity for 8.000.000 TEU by 2015, but given whats happened to the international markets, is there demand atm for that kind of capacity?

Plus I think Durban at the very least has some VERY big expansion plans that are being talked about, or investigated as well.

Tanger MAY take the lead for awhile, but Durban I think will ultimately outpace it if it does.

A

Wait till the Queen MaryII trundles down there on 22-03-2010, now that will be a sight to remember.:cheers:



I know shes making a Stop in CT, but didnt know shes visiting us to! :banana:

Can some of you help me out with this thread, This oke says Tanger port is biggest in Africa and most important, of course he is mistaken

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=432528

Not at current, but still with Durbs revamp taking place & still future plans of extension we could see the super carrier's like the Eugen from Maersk visiting us soon. In terms of technology Tanger might be slightly ahead of us in terms of cranes etc... but then again they are a complete new port so building from scratch & with berths big enough for the super carriers this was all forseen. With Dube's plans well in fullswing Im confident Durbans figures will increase. Know guys in Gringrod & Unicorn, will ask him for some figures seeing that the Port Manager at CT is too busy to reply to my mails :bash:

saw something in todays paper about Transnet wanting Ngqura to be their main hub and Durbs, CT & RB to play second fiddle to it?

saw something in todays paper about Transnet wanting Ngqura to be their main hub and Durbs, CT & RB to play second fiddle to it?

They probably mean their main container transhipment hub (i.e. offloading containers from large, post-panamax ships from the East and reloading the containers onto smaller ships bound for African ports).
1stly Ngqura is not close enough to Jo'burg to justify being the main container port and 2nd after the Durban harbour mouth widening it will be able to accommodate post-panamax ships.

I think that Transnet would like to keep Durban as their main container port for inbound and outbound containers (this maintains good volumes on their Jo'burg-Durban railway line) and move all the transhipment container traffic to Ngqura to keep it out of their hair.

Might be wrong but I think that this will probably be the strategy.

I didnt read the entire article so I have no idea.

The articles appeared in yesterday's Business Report. Here's one of them. I personally think Ngqura will battle to establiish itself in the next few years as the supporting infrastructure just doesn't exist yet.

--------------

Experts bat for Ngqura as country's hub port

One analyst chooses to differ
July 15, 2009

By SLINDILE KHANYILE

Industry experts endorsed Transnet's decision to select the port of Ngqura near Port Elizabeth as the main shipping hub of the country, but at least one analyst questioned the wisdom of the decision.

While most industry players interviewed by Business Report cited the location as the reason the port would be a good hub, at least one analyst thought the lack of established industry near Ngqura would make it difficult to attain the status of a hub.

Experts from Grindrod and Safmarine said some of the advantages of Ngqura were that it was well placed between America, the Far East and Asia; Durban was congested and expected increased containerisation over time; and there was a trend towards mega container ships. But an analyst from Old Mutual Investment Group South Africa (Omigsa) said some of the disadvantages were that it did not have an accompanying railway line.

Recently, Solly Letsoalo, the chief operating officer at Transnet Port Terminals, was quoted in trade magazine Freight and Trade Weekly as saying Ngqura would be the sole hub port for South Africa, a decision taken after research by Flynn Consulting.

Letsoalo said Ngqura was situated in the middle of the biggest world markets and in the middle of the growing south-south trade.

"Ngqura will grow to be the biggest port in South Africa, and the most cost efficient. It will also be the only hub, as research has shown that two hubs in a country are a disaster," said Letsoalo.

But Cavan Osborne, an analyst at Omigsa, said it would be difficult for Transnet to attract business to Ngqura because it was badly positioned as it was not near the main industries.

"A port needs integrated infrastructure, good railway, road and it must be located close to industry for it to be attractive. This one is badly positioned," said Osborne.

"There is no doubt that the Durban port is congested but I don't see Ngqura succeeding in the next 10 years, maybe in 30 years," said Osborne.

Khaya Gobodo, the head of equities at Afena Capital, said the need for additional port capacity would make Ngqura attractive.

"What is true as a starting point is that the existing port infrastructure is running at full capacity," said Gobodo.

"The choice of port for the users of infrastructure is about cost, both direct and indirect. The direct cost relates to berthing and how far it is from where the products need to go.

"The indirect cost is about the efficiency of the port, how long the ship has to be there before it can be unloaded because if a ship can come in and leave, that's a major cost saving for users," said Gobodo.

Gobodo stressed additional port capacity had to be accompanied by rail infrastructure for it to be effective.

Dave Rennie, the executive director at Grindrod, said that given the growth of containerisation over time and a trend towards mega container ships, Ngqura would become an important hub port on the southern main haul route.

"Its success will depend on it becoming an efficient, cost effective and well serviced hub, but it certainly has the main attributes to be one, including the Coega free trade zone."


http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5082793

PORT "Business in Durban" - Winter 2009
PAGE 10

Cruise ships add glamour and cash

The visit to Durban just weeks ago of the luxury cruise ship Sun Princess ended a highly successful cruise season for our harbour, in which no less than 69 ship calls were made involving 18 different cruise ships, ranging from multiple calls by the Melody to one-off visits by famous name vessels like Rotterdam, Europa, Deutschland and Aurora

While the passenger ships may have slipped into and from the port with little fanfare, for passengers embarking or leaving their ships here the visit was a momentous one, with opportunities to visit game parks and other scenic attractions or simply go shopping at Gateway or the Pavilion.

One should never underrate the value of these glamorous visitors, who bring with them much needed revenue but also take away mostly favourable impressions of a country - often leading to return visits. Cruise lines report that between 50 and 70% of all passengers intend returning for future land-based holidays, while recent studies by the US-based Cruise Lines International Association, which represents the world's leading cruise ship operators, reveal that a liner carrying 2 000 passengers and 950 crew generates an average of $322 705 (R2.7 million) spending per call in a home-port: a similar ship making port of call visits generates $275 000 (R2.3million) in onshore spending.

In the past few years Durban has been quietly positioning itself as the centre for future cruise visits. Much promotional work has been achieved in this respect, particularly by Tourism KwaZulu-Natal, which has actively promoted the city and Southern Africa as a cruise destination at the annual Cruise Shipping Miami trade show held in Florida, the United States and elsewhere.

In May this culminated in a meeting in Durban coinciding with Indaba 2009.

It involved representatives of the tourist industry and others from the port authorities in South and East Africa who met to discuss and launch the formation of the Cruise Indian Ocean Association in Southern Africa. This body will take the initiative in bringing together various organisations and people to market and promote South and East Africa and the Indian Ocean islands as the next "must-see" cruise destination. Workshops will be held in Durban in the months ahead involving executives from the leading cruise operators, who will be fully exposed to all that the region has to offer. Similar workshops in South America, Australia and New Zealand and the UK, among other places, have proved highly successful in getting ships home ported in those areas and growing the local cruise industry.

In that respect it is interesting to report that two luxury, 2 OOO-passenger ships will be home ported in South Africa during the 2010 Soccer World Cup to act as floating hotels. The two vessels, the Noordam and the Westerdam, will operate between Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town for the duration of the tournament.

SOUTH AFRICA REMAINS PROBABLY ONE OF THE LAST PLACES STILL TO BE DISCOVERED BY CRUISE SHIPS AND THEIR OPERATORS

South Africa remains probably one of the last places still to be discovered by cruise ships and their operators, although if the past cruise season were any yardstick, that is already changing.

It is also appropriate that the final ship for the current season was the spectacular 77 441-gt Sun Princess, of Princess Cruises, which can carry up to 2 000 passengers at a time and which undertook a 46-night cruise from Western Australia to South East Asia, India and South Africa.

This is a first for this magnificent ship and marks another step along the way of bringing the best in cruise ships to Durban and South Africa.

And next year there's something even grander to look forward to - the magnificent and regal Queen Mary 2, at 150 OOO-gt among the largest passenger ships ever built, which will be calling here during her world cruise.

Just as well the harbour entrance will have been widened!

www.businessindurban.co.za

New fruit terminal opens

April 6, 2005

The opening of a new R61.5 million fruit terminal on Maydon Wharf will significantly improve opportunities for South African citrus producers to increase sales of citrus to countries with strict import protocols.

Last year South Africa exported 120 000 pallets of citrus to Japan, which has one of the strictest steri-protocols of any nation. The new Maydon Wharf Fruit Terminal, a joint venture between the Oceana Group and SA Port Operations, handled 35 000 pallets in its first season - the balance being exported via another Durban terminal, Fresh Produce Terminals.

Guests at the official opening last week heard how the Maydon Wharf Terminal expects to increase its exports to Japan to 67 000 pallets this year and is seeking to break into the Chinese market.

South African citrus producers are keen to break the stranglehold that other countries, notably the United States, have on the Asian market. An estimated 26 million trees have been planted locally in the last eight years and an additional 30 million cartons of citrus should become available for sale by 2010, boosting the total to 100 million cartons and leaving farmers and their marketers to find new export markets.


Currently 75% of South African export production goes into central Europe and the UK, but in recent years SA has developed an emerging market in Russia, while sales to the Middle East have grown by between 30% and 40% since 2001. The Department of Trade and Industry forecasts that fruit exports to the UAE will have doubled by the end of next year's season.

The South African season is sandwiched between May and October.

China is one of the country's big hopes regarding fruit exports, particularly since South Africa and China signed protocols in mid 2004 providing formal access to the Chinese citrus market.

The Citrus Growers Association said last year that China would be treated as a special market and those wishing to export to China would have to register their orchards and apply cold steri-treatment to eradicate unwanted pests.

This is where the new Durban terminal is likely to come into its own, along with the existing Fresh Produce Terminal on the T-Jetty. Both terminals leave Durban well secured to maintain its position as southern Africa's principal citrus export port.
Will improvements be done to the transporting of fruit into the ports from truck stops to delay excessive exposure to heat??

The Port Of Durban Handled 5.76mn Tonnes In May 2009

Published on July 29, 2009

by Press Office

(Companiesandmarkets.com and OfficialWire)

LONDON, ENGLAND

South Africa Freight Transport Report Q3 2009

In June, throughput figures at South Africa's ports for the preceding month of May were released and showed that the global downturn in trade was hitting the nation’s maritime sector hard, with total cargo throughput at the nation's ports falling by 11% month on month (m-o-m). Richard’s Bay, Saladanha Bay, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London all recorded m-o-m declines in total cargo throughput in May 2009, according to figures released by Ports & Ships, with just Durban and Mossel Bay increasing their m-o-m throughput. The port of Durban handled 5.76mn tonnes in May 2009, up by 11.2% on the 5.179mn tonnes that the port handled in April 2009. BMI notes that the analysis of y-o-y figures offers indications of a slightly different trend.

Richard’s Bay, Port Elizabeth, Mossel Bay and East London all recorded declines in total cargo throughput. But Durban, Saladanha Bay and Cape Town record growth in total cargo tonnage handled. BMI believes the decline in throughput at Richard's Bay is down to the decline in global coal demand. Richard’s Bay is South Africa's main coal export port. We believe the ports of Durban, Saladanha Bay and Cape Town increases in throughput are down to South Africa's demand for imports, which BMI expects will grow by 1.7% in 2009 on the back of the country’s demand for goods and raw materials, as it prepares to host the 2010 World Cup. Despite our growth projections for the country's import sector, the forecast decline of 2.3% in South Africa’s export sector will pull down the throughput at the country’s ports. BMI Shipping analysts foresee declines in South Africa’s main ports of Durban, Cape Town and Richard’s Bay of 0.1%, 0.1% and 0.3% respectively for 2009.

In this latest South Africa Freight Transport Report, BMI concludes that freight carried across all modes in South Africa is set to increase at an annual average rate of 3.1% over the next five years, ahead of the general rate of GDP growth. Various factors support this prediction. The global recession is taking its toll, with the economy due to contract by 1.9% this year and recover slowly after that. We now expect the economy will grow at an annual average rate of 2.3% across the 2009-2013 forecast period, with foreign trade rising by 11.3% a year in value terms. Government policy favours resumed investment in port development, but this is taking time to feed through. Before the downturn started in the second half of 2008 (H208), South Africa’s rate of economic expansion had been spurred by domestic consumption, investment growth, and international demand for commodities. These resulted in strong demand for transport services. Export shipments of gold, platinum group metals, chrome, manganese, and coal necessitated increased freight services. Looking forward, these forces will take some time to re-asserts themselves. South Africa’s plans to foster regional expansion in southern Africa, which entails improving and extending the transport network, is also a potential plus factor.

BMI believes the global slowdown and domestic problems, such as power shortages, are feeding through and having a negative impact on the transport sector in the short term. Overall freight volume shipped by road is forecast to increase by an annual 2.3% for the rest of the review period. We assume that adequate dockside facilities and port throughput will not constrain the growth of container trade, with volumes weaker on the short term as a result of the recession. BMI expects maritime freight carried to grow by an annual average of 5.4% in 2009-2013. We expect airfreight to edge ahead with 3.0% growth and, not far behind, pipeline throughput at 2.3% a year and rail at 2.1%.

South Africa’s overall freight rating, at 60.7 out of 100, is above average for the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. It scores well in terms economic factors and in its regulatory background, but its record in relation to historic and forecast growth in foreign trade and in transport remains relatively weak. By the very nature of the industry, many of the problems associated with reforming transport network, facilities, and services have to be considered over a medium-term time frame.

According to our latest estimates, the total value of transport and communications GDP will rise to US$38.8bn in nominal terms by 2013, representing 8.2% of South Africa’s GDP.

South Africa Freight Transport Report Q3 2009:
http://www.companiesmarkets.com/r.ashx?id=27SJ1532L154294


http://www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=11923&catid=253

With news that the QE2 may head to Cape Town, i did some digging and found out that the ship has been provisionally booked into the Dry docks at Durban for repairs from the 15th September.

However, with the applications against the ship being based in Cape Town harbour being brought by 6 hotel groups, the likelihood of the QE2 being based in CT grows stronger every day. Especially when Transnet have yet to give the go ahead as well.

so typical of the south african closed club mentality. how can 6 hotels try to stop the QE2 in order to protect their rip off rates they charge, its a joke when one considers we are severly under keyed in CT when it comes to hotels for 2010 and this sort of anti competition mind set needs to be broken

Will improvements be done to the transporting of fruit into the ports from truck stops to delay excessive exposure to heat??

Hi Gabby, I think this article was from 2005, looking at its date. So presumably something has been done about the fruit. Also, if they were going to keep the high standards needed for export to Japan they probably already had refridgerised truck transport.

Wonder how this fruit export terminal is doing?

so typical of the south african closed club mentality. how can 6 hotels try to stop the QE2 in order to protect their rip off rates they charge, its a joke when one considers we are severly under keyed in CT when it comes to hotels for 2010 and this sort of anti competition mind set needs to be broken

I disagree with your view. Yes we may be understocked for the 2010 WC period, but this ship plans to dock for 18months. That is 18 months of massive oversupply in a region that will already be struggling with oversupply. It is not 6 hotels, but 6 hotel groups which are complaining and i believe they are completely within their rights to do so as this will in effect cripple their businesses and their investment in the city. Bringing the QE2 to CT is not an investment by the Dubai firm and should be seen in that light.

so if i want to build a 400key hotel in CT i can have the 6 groups trying to stop me (on what legal grounds?) in order to protect their investment(profits and monopoly), SA hotels groups are shithouse, their properties are terrible and if this is how they act how do international brands enter the market?

this is the pure form of protectionism which developing world compain about everyday.

you cant say bring your boat cos we fucked up by not having enough beds in Sa but you can only bring it for 4 weeks?

Yep, competition is always good. It not only forces down prices, but also brings new ideas and improves standards. We as SAns must stop isolating ourselves with a conservative attitude and keep on living in the past century.

You are completely missing my point. This is not anti competition. These hotel groups, who are not all local chains by the way, have invested millions in infrastructure and Have positively contributed to the city. This ship will merely pitch up, drop anchor and not physically add a thing to the city except perhaps the claim she is temp berthed there. I dont buy your statement that them complaining is protectionism and price fixing what not. And to try compare a movable asset like the qe2 to physically building a 400 key hotels is not comparing with the same base. One is an investment, the other is not.there's nothing stopping them moving their ship to a better port after a few months, but u cant just move a physical hotel. Yes hotels are highly priced here and specifically in cape town and that needs to be shaken up, but that really does not have relevance to what i have been saying

to correct you Mike, none of the international chains have invested anything. they are all management contracts , physical asset investment is by a Developer (typically local South African)
It is also by the way teh most famous ship of all time, I really find this inward looking SA atitude one of the biggest obsticals to FDI into SA, There are pleantly of othere ports lobbying for the QE2 to go their. ts amazing that such a ship and benifit (jobs no less and shit loads of them) is not wanted. FYI Dubai owns the waterfront so they should be able to do what they want there,

You guys would rather cut your nose to protect "local foreighn" hotels at the expense of having 15 000 beds short in 2010 just in teh western cape.

Strange logic.

If these hard working local hotels are so worried why the fuck dident they build another 10 hotels each to take up massive shortage of beds?

Yep, competition is always good. It not only forces down prices, but also brings new ideas and improves standards. We as SAns must stop isolating ourselves with a conservative attitude and keep on living in the past century.

I could not agree more, Its Sa biggest problem and one that concerns me the most.we are so dynamic in some things yet so backwards in others

Bear in mind that, aside from objections from hotel groups, CT harbour also has space constraints. It simply cannot host a ship the size of the QE2 for 18 months as that will mean denying docking to all other cruiseships. I don't think denying other cruiseships will be in CT's interests. The QE2 is being docked there, not being utilised for cruise activities along the SA coast. No going around that argument.

As CT claims it has sufffient accommodation for 2010, a more suited city to host the QE2 and which has major accommodation issues, and the ability to host the QE2, is PE.

Also, it would be nice to have a ship named after Queen Elizabeth to be based in the only SA city named after Queen Elizabeth (albeit not the same one).

Transnet Port Terminals to expand Durban container capacity

By: Esmarie Swanepoel
18th August 2009

State-owned Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) is looking to expand the capacity at the Durban port within the next few years, it said on Tuesday.

The capacity at the Pier One terminal, the first of TPT's container terminals to make use of rubber-tyred gantry cranes, would be doubled from the current capacity of 720 000 TEUs.

However, the utility said that the expansion would depend on demand.

Spokesperson Sandile Simelane told Engineering News Online that container volumes had dropped as a result of the global economic crisis, but noted that traffic was starting to pick-up again.

Before the economic crisis hit, the container sector experienced growth of about 10% a year. TPT CEO Tau Morwe said in June that the utility was forecasting container growth to be 3% a year until 2014.

At the Pier Two terminal, TPT would boost its capacity by over 26%, from 750 containers a day to 950 containers a day.

The pier had also completed the construction of a three-rail terminal to replace an old two-rail system.

Projects under way at the Durban container terminal include an automated gate with cameras, a new truck staging area and increasing the number of reefer points to 2 000.

Edited by: Mariaan Webb

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/transnet-port-terminals-to-expand-container-capacity-at-durban-2009-08-18

Thanks to good man, pixman.
PD.

http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/1%20Aug%202009/index.html

^^
Interestingly, the temporary sand pumping scheme is still in temporary set up condition.

Exposed hdpe feed line amazingly remains exposed in various shots.

Also evident is the shifted shipping line to the northern section of the mouth as the PINOCCHIO excavator works on extracting and subsequent demolition of the remaining sections of the old service tunnel on the south bank.

Capping of the New North Groyne also evident.

250 TON MAMMOET ANTIFER PLACEMENT CRANE, IN FINAL DEMOB ON NORTH REVETMENT.

PD.

The port of Durban handled 5.76mn tonnes in May 2009

In June, throughput figures at South Africa´s ports for the preceding month of May were released and showed that the global downturn in trade was hitting the nation’s maritime sector hard, with total cargo throughput at the nation´s ports falling by 11% month on month (m-o-m). Richard’s Bay, Saladanha Bay, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London all recorded m-o-m declines in total cargo throughput in May 2009, according to figures released by Ports & Ships, with just Durban and Mossel Bay increasing their m-o-m throughput. The port of Durban handled 5.76mn tonnes in May 2009, up by 11.2% on the 5.179mn tonnes that the port handled in April 2009. BMI notes that the analysis of y-o-y figures offers indications of a slightly different trend.

Richard’s Bay, Port Elizabeth, Mossel Bay and East London all recorded declines in total cargo throughput. But Durban, Saladanha Bay and Cape Town record growth in total cargo tonnage handled. BMI believes the decline in throughput at Richard´s Bay is down to the decline in global coal demand. Richard’s Bay is South Africa´s main coal export port. We believe the ports of Durban, Saladanha Bay and Cape Town increases in throughput are down to South Africa´s demand for imports, which BMI expects will grow by 1.7% in 2009 on the back of the country’s demand for goods and raw materials, as it prepares to host the 2010 World Cup. Despite our growth projections for the country´s import sector, the forecast decline of 2.3% in South Africa’s export sector will pull down the throughput at the country’s ports. BMI Shipping analysts foresee declines in South Africa’s main ports of Durban, Cape Town and Richard’s Bay of 0.1%, 0.1% and 0.3% respectively for 2009.

In this latest South Africa Freight Transport Report, BMI concludes that freight carried across all modes in South Africa is set to increase at an annual average rate of 3.1% over the next five years, ahead of the general rate of GDP growth. Various factors support this prediction. The global recession is taking its toll, with the economy due to contract by 1.9% this year and recover slowly after that. We now expect the economy will grow at an annual average rate of 2.3% across the 2009-2013 forecast period, with foreign trade rising by 11.3% a year in value terms. Government policy favours resumed investment in port development, but this is taking time to feed through. Before the downturn started in the second half of 2008 (H208), South Africa’s rate of economic expansion had been spurred by domestic consumption, investment growth, and international demand for commodities. These resulted in strong demand for transport services. Export shipments of gold, platinum group metals, chrome, manganese, and coal necessitated increased freight services. Looking forward, these forces will take some time to re-asserts themselves. South Africa’s plans to foster regional expansion in southern Africa, which entails improving and extending the transport network, is also a potential plus factor.

BMI believes the global slowdown and domestic problems, such as power shortages, are feeding through and having a negative impact on the transport sector in the short term. Overall freight volume shipped by road is forecast to increase by an annual 2.3% for the rest of the review period. We assume that adequate dockside facilities and port throughput will not constrain the growth of container trade, with volumes weaker on the short term as a result of the recession. BMI expects maritime freight carried to grow by an annual average of 5.4% in 2009-2013. We expect airfreight to edge ahead with 3.0% growth and, not far behind, pipeline throughput at 2.3% a year and rail at 2.1%.

South Africa’s overall freight rating, at 60.7 out of 100, is above average for the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. It scores well in terms economic factors and in its regulatory background, but its record in relation to historic and forecast growth in foreign trade and in transport remains relatively weak. By the very nature of the industry, many of the problems associated with reforming transport network, facilities, and services have to be considered over a medium-term time frame.

According to our latest estimates, the total value of transport and communications GDP will rise to US$38.8bn in nominal terms by 2013, representing 8.2% of South Africa’s GDP.

http://www.pr-inside.com/the-port-of-durban-handled-5-76mn-r1449535.htm

If anyone is interested in seeing Transnet's proposed plans for the Durban harbour, see below. This contains the proposed bayhead plans, which remain in limbo given their Coega announcement.

http://www.transnet.co.za/Documents/PortOfDurban/StakeholderEngagement/TransProj_PresToTenants.pdf

^^

dont quite understand why you post this 3 yr old plan now when it wont happen.

Transnet strategy to roll out their infrastructure in the middle of the commodity and labour cost boom era, was well, unfortunate if not short sighted by one Mrs Maria Manuel, nee Ramos.:bash:

Currently Transnet are demobilising their project management team from Hatch/Mott MacDonald/Goba, so as to contain budget for their own execution teams. Again this will further send the entity back toward its old inefficient morf.:cheers:

PD.

As indicated, it was posted for those who are interested in seeing the plan.

^^

dont quite understand why you post this 3 yr old plan now when it wont happen.

Transnet strategy to roll out their infrastructure in the middle of the commodity and labour cost boom era, was well, unfortunate if not short sighted by one Mrs Maria Manuel, nee Ramos.:bash:

Currently Transnet are demobilising their project management team from Hatch/Mott MacDonald/Goba, so as to contain budget for their own execution teams. Again this will further send the entity back toward its old inefficient morf.:cheers:

PD.

because people are interested in the thought prosscesses behind descision. And with regard to the capex expansion during a boom, yes it costs more but its also normally when the funding and need for projects are most pressing. All companies would like to build at the cheapest possible time but naturally that cant happen (its a boom so there is demand because people are all spending, if everyone had money at the bottom of the cycle when it was cheaper then they would also spend increasing demand and making another boom). And with regard to Mrs Manual nee Ramos, what is your real issue with her, as I understand it the only reason transnet could be rescinding to its inefficient self is because it was not inefficient in the recent past and the person who was responisible for transnet in the recent past was Mrs Manual hence she should be praised and possibly the current team complained about, but they havent really done much wrong other than to adapt to a shrinking global market. Also as an aside you in one post complain about both the spending of money and cost cutting measures which way would you like the company to jump or is there any solution to any of the "problems" you present.

It is something we have been asking of him for a long time...alas it seems sensationalism is wat he likes. PD please make sense with your posts

To add more info, the long export trains cannot run with diesels to the port of Durban due to the length of the tunnels, these multiple consist trains with up to 4 locomotives will experience failure with the second, third and fourth locomotive overheating in the long tunnels (up to 4 kilometers).

Thanks for that info mate. Its not an area i know much about

Article in today's Mercury reports that Durban has lost its status as the busiest harbour in the Southern Hemisphere and Africa. However, this is nothing to be distressed about as it was not due to fewer ships calling or falling tonnage. In fact, Durban's tonnage and number of ships visiting is still growing healthily. However, other ports are growing even faster as they service countries with FAR bigger populations than SA (or even combined populations of SA and neighbouring states). The ports that have overtaken Durbs:

re: Africa's busiest port - Port Said, Egypt (population of Egypt is more than 83 million).

Re: busiest in Southern Hemisphere - Santos, Brazil (population of Brazil is more than 191 million) and Tanjung Priok, Indonesia (population of Indonesia is more than 230 million).

No way SA's population of less than 50 million (including illegal immigrants) can compete with that, although with increased TEUs forecast in the years ahead, Durbs can overtake Port Said again (but probably not Santos and Tanjung Priok in the foreseeable future given that Indonesia is the world's 4th most populous country, and Brazil, the world's 5th most populous country).

If I recall correct, Durbs has also been completely bumped out of even the top 30 busiest ports worldwide (we were once ranked 9th). Aside from Rotterdam and Singapore, I think all the other top 10 places (including 1st: Shanghai) are now dominated by Chinese ports (Dubai was either in top 10 or top 15; can't recall off-hand), according to the latest stats. I suppose that's the way of the future, with Eastern ports (incl a few from India) now completely dominating port rankings.

What ever the case we still have potential of being the "Gateway to Africa" its best we make use of it.

What ever the case we still have potential of being the "Gateway to Africa" its best we make use of it.

Correct. Port Said services Egypt, not neighbouring countries. The Port of Durban, on the other hand, services at least 7 other African countries, including countries are far inland as Malawi. It's easily the most important regional port in Africa. It's also a strategic port for transhipment of goods from Latin America (mainly Brazil) to Asia (mainly India / China), which other African ports can't quite claim. In fact, Durban was named as the SA strategic port of choice for the IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) Alliance.

PD, this issue has absolutely nothing to do with development in the Durban harbour. Rather than hijacking the Durban Harbour thread for your views of Ramos (and related issues that you constantly link to her), perhaps create a separate thread in the shebeen forum for those issues so that those specifically interested in your hate-fest of Ramos/Transnet can go there to be entertained. Thank you.

Please have general harbour and transnet discussion in a separate thread. This thread is for issues directly related to the Durban harbour

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=941880

Confirmation that Durbs will remain the country's top harbour.

And it seems as if the dug-out DIA airport site for a 2nd harbour is very much a possibility. This will really do a lot to propel the city to new heights and entrench its position as dominant port in SA (and likely Africa again too).

---------------------

Ports boss says Durban will remain SA’s top gateway
MARGIE INGGS Published: 2009/09/07 06:19:06 AM


DURBAN would remain SA’s premier gateway port despite development of the port of Ngqura, as more than 65% of SA’s containers were imported through Durban, Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) CE Tau Morwe has said.

TPT has invested about R3,2bn in the development of the port of Ngqura on the Coega River mouth, 20km from Port Elizabeth, which will be SA’s deepest container terminal.

Speaking at Transnet’s annual breakfast on Friday, Morwe said there was no competition between South African ports. Transnet has said in the past that Ngqura, due to be opened on October 1, had been selected as the main shipping hub of the country.

Morwe said the new port would become the trans-shipment hub of SA, providing berthing for the new generation of giant container ships set to visit SA, and then transferring the containers to smaller vessels and shipping them to ports such as Durban.

Ngqura is well positioned in both the middle of the biggest world market and in the middle of the growing south-to-east trade, but it lacks a thriving industrial development zone. Durban is surrounded by an established manufacturing hub and has a well- established rail link with Gauteng, where much of its imports are sent.

But the development of Ngqura as a hub for the new generation of deep- water vessels throws into question the R3bn invested by Transnet in widening and deepening the Durban harbour entrance, which was done to accommodate the new vessels.

Solly Letsoala, TPT’s chief operating officer, said Transnet now had the challenge of evaluating whether to deepen the container berths in Durban or to construct a new deep-berth container terminal in Durban.

Expansion continues to be important at the Durban Port despite the recession, and Morwe said Transnet was in talks with the Department of Public Works to expand the container terminal towards Salisbury Island.

Pier 1 terminal is being expanded to increase capacity. Changes are also under way at the Durban Container Terminal, with R1bn invested to raise its capacity to 2,9-million units from 2,3-million. To achieve this, many of the buildings within the Durban container terminal are being demolished and rebuilt outside its perimeter.

The new national infrastructure plans have put proposals for a second dug-out port back on the cards as a new container terminal for Durban to relieve the growing congestion.


http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=80721

Durban lost it's position as Africa's busiest port?

Yup. See my posts above (on Sept 2, 2009).

^^ that is based on containers only though... I would like to see a comprehensive look across containers and bulk

Yup. See my posts above (on Sept 2, 2009).

Oh thanks. Missed that.

Morwe says Durban to remain SA’s premier container port

The port of Durban will remain South Africa’s main container port and terminal, says Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) chief executive Tau Morwe.

Morwe was speaking at a Business to Business breakfast held in Durban as part of a countrywide ‘meet the customer’ initiative. “Durban will remain South Africa’s premier gateway container port,” he said.

This was in response to a statement made in Port Elizabeth by TPT’s chief operating officer, Solly Letsoalo who said that the new port of Ngqura was envisaged as the country’s premier gateway port of the future. See that report HERE

Morwe said that South Africa’s ports do not compete with each other. The focus on Ngqura, he said, would be on transhipment cargo where TPT saw opportunities for the South African port to become a major transhipment hub for the region. Some cargo for South Africa might move through Ngqura, he conceded, but the majority of containers would continue to go to Durban. South Africa needed to do more than just think about handling more transhipment cargo. Other regional ports were doing similar work and thinking of opportunities.

“Our hub concept is not about replacing one port with another but seizing the opportunity to attract new business.”

“Despite being in a recession we have not stopped expanding,” he pointed out. “The growth of our ports remains dependent on their improvements and efficiencies.” He said that TPT was talking with the relevant authorities about expanding into the Salisbury Island area of Durban harbour for future container growth.

“We also have to question carefully whether we spend billions on digging out a new port.”

There was also the matter of berth deepening to correspond with the work done by Transnet National Ports Authority in widening and deepening the Durban harbour entrance. Current thinking was along the lines of deepening berths 101, 102 and 103 on Pier 1 (currently used for laybye shipping and bunkering) and incorporating these into the Pier 1 Container Terminal, which would ultimately link up with a Salisbury Island expansion. This would provide the port with three deepwater berths without disrupting existing container operations.

Morwe said that TPT had consistently met its budgeted target spend on new infrastructure. In the past year R1.9 Billion was expended by TPT on this, with a large chunk being spent in Durban.

source: www.ports.co.za

Well that clear's up ALOT of confusion

^^

Saw a Sky News report televised showing the current laid up shipping off Singapore, ie 300ish container vessels.

Guess its a good time to move your stuff around right now with the rates available.

PD.

hmm yeh, here's my chance to import some cars from the US, just need to sneak them past customs though, PD you got any contacts? LOL

bru its not that easy, its the ban on LHD cars thats a killa. I dident buy a R8 because I wouldent have been allowed to take it back to SA. Will have to sell both X5 and X6 before we go home in 3 years, its a crazy law

^^Well I got in touch with SARS on the matter before, I can bring what ever car I want from what ever country, but here's how the tax works, 100% on the car by customs & excise, plus additional 14% from SARS, then a further 12% "special taxes" nobody could tell me what these "special" taxes were, & thats just TAX, excluding shipping cost's, registration fee's etc...

http://i33.************/2zoasno.jpg

^^Well I got in touch with SARS on the matter before, I can bring what ever car I want from what ever country, but here's how the tax works, 100% on the car by customs & excise, plus additional 14% from SARS, then a further 12% "special taxes" nobody could tell me what these "special" taxes were, & thats just TAX, excluding shipping cost's, registration fee's etc...

AND if the invoice value is US$1, it wont amount to much now, will it.

doubt Lexus LA gona give me an invoice for the car at $1, lol
Maybe West Coast Customs can!

Cool image there, DB. I think the proposed passenger terminal is closer to the harbour mouth, just below the Point Waterfront. Would be cool to see a render of a terminal there.

Cool image there, DB. I think the proposed passenger terminal is closer to the harbour mouth, just below the Point Waterfront. Would be cool to see a render of a terminal there.

same spot,

long term planning prevents it being sited near the mouth due to the sand pumping scheme fiasco created by Cape Towns marine engineers PRDW.:ohno:

doubt Lexus LA gona give me an invoice for the car at $1, lol
Maybe West Coast Customs can!

JAMMIES FOR AFRICA dont seem to have much of a problem getting there stock moving. Sure they could squeez a yank mobile thru for you.

Cool image there, DB. I think the proposed passenger terminal is closer to the harbour mouth, just below the Point Waterfront. Would be cool to see a render of a terminal there.

I know I started working on this position AGES ago, just never did have the time to complete it, it still isnt finished but I wanted to see how it would look, lol

http://i37.************/ear1og.jpg

http://i34.************/rirlf4.jpg

http://i36.************/2wqs80l.jpg

http://i38.************/8zfqwx.jpg

http://i34.************/2usehdd.jpg

http://i38.************/sgstv7.jpg

http://i33.************/2z7mjxw.jpg



same spot,

long term planning prevents it being sited near the mouth due to the sand pumping scheme fiasco created by Cape Towns marine engineers PRDW.:ohno:

So its staying where it is?

JAMMIES FOR AFRICA dont seem to have much of a problem getting there stock moving. Sure they could squeez a yank mobile thru for you.

you got any contacts? lol

That looks very cool, DB. I'd visit it. :)

Conversion of Durban’s existing airport into dugout container terminal under consideration again

By: Margie Inggs
25th September 2009

Transnet had resurrected the idea of converting Durban’s existing airport into a dugout container terminal to 
relieve the congestion at the port, Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) CEO Tau Morwe, said at the annual Transnet breakfast recently.

Over 67% of the country’s container traffic flows through the Port of Durban, but future expansion is essential if Durban is to remain the country’s premier port. Its status has been questioned by Transnet’s selection of the Port of Ngqura, on the Coega river mouth, 20 km from Port Elizabeth, as the country’s main shipping hub.

However, Morwe said there was no competition between South Africa’s ports, which complemented one another. While digging out the airport site would require Transnet digging deep into its pockets, it had increased its investment in the ports, mainly the Port of Durban, from R131-million in the 2001/2 
financial year to R3-billion for the year ended March 2009.

Morwe also pointed out that the parastatal was planning to invest R9-billion in the ports over the next five years.

He said the city of Durban, Airports Com-pany South Africa (Acsa)and the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government were holding discussions as to how best to use the prime airport site, which is only 12 km from the city centre.

The idea of a second dugout port was first mooted in the 1950s and gained support when the suggestion of a new airport at La Mercy, north of Durban, was raised in the 1970s. It gained further popularity in the 1990s but was later shelved as it was considered too expensive. The option of digging out the previous wetland at the end of Bayhead road was then raised as an alternative. This would be much cheaper but would require relocating the railway marshalling yards, possibly to Cato Ridge, to the west of Durban, and the ship repair 
basins to the Port of Richards Bay.

While Morwe said, at a recent business forum 
in Durban, that the possibility of the existing airport site being used as a second port was off the cards, Transnet had since changed its tune with the release of the National Infrastucture Plan in its recently published annual report.

The advantage of buying the land when the airport is decommissioned at the end of May 2010 is that buying from Acsa – a government entity – would cost Transnet a lot less than it would have to pay if a private developer secured the land first. A second dugout port would not be required for another 25 to 30 years, but Transnet could lease the land in the meantime, and has indicated that it would like to acquire the site even if it is not used as a second port.

What is clear, however, is that some sort of action needs to be taken if Durban is to retain its current status as Africa’s busiest port and as South Africa’s most important strategic port. Container volumes at the Port of Durban have grown from 300 000 TEUs in the 1970s and 1980s to 2,3-million TEUs, and Morwe said expansion continued to be important despite the recession, which has caused container 
volumes to drop by 15% and break-bulk cargo by 40%, compared with last year’s figures.

However, TPT COO Solly Letsoalo said 
recently that TPT was banking on a recovery within two years.

Currently, Transnet is holding discussions with the Department of Public Works regarding the extension of the Pier I container terminal towards Salisbury Island, the site of South Africa’s naval station.

Morwe said Transnet was also spending R1-billion on alterations at the Durban container terminal, which would 
increase its capacity to 2,9-million TEUs.

Edited by: Martin Zhuwakinyu

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/durban-port-2009-09-25

DB, maybe you should approach the city and Portnet with your renders. Methinks we need a funky, new passenger terminal. Seems Durban has 53 passenger ships calling over the next while. That's a LOT of passengers. Seems as if Mombassa's loss has been Durban's gain.

Also, what the hell is the UK thinking, imposing a £95 ($153) on tourists from London to developing countries???

------------------------

Cruise ships threaten to drop Mombasa

By MIKE MANDE, BEN SANGA and JULIUS BOSIRE (email the author)
Posted Monday, October 12 2009 at 00:00

International cruise ship operators have threatened to pull out of the port of Mombasa, citing high operational costs brought about by newly introduced Value Added Tax on all marine and port services.

The lines argue that the move by the Kenya government is unjustified, at a time when business stakeholders in the region’s cruise ship industry are grappling with the effects of global economic crunch.

The global cruise operators also say they are struggling to navigate the rising piracy in regional waters, not to mention the high cost of sailing brought about by unstable fuel prices and consumer apathy.

The add that the levies by the Kenya government are untimely and create an unfavourable environment for business.

Over and above is, cruise ship lines’ claim that they shy away from the East African ports of Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar due to their poor infrastructure.

Tourism Minister Najib Balala told The EastAfrican that he had raised the matter with his Finance counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta, with a view to exempting cruise ships operators from paying VAT.

“The taxes are meant for port users. This is premised purely on the need for the Ministry of Finance to fund the budget. Whereas I sympathise with the ministry in its pursuit of these funds, cruise ships do not have a terminal exclusively meant for them, so we are deliberating on the issue,” Mr Balala explained.

“Here is a situation where one is caught between a rock and a hard place,” he added.

The port of Durban has announced that it has so far scheduled 53 port calls, including the multiple ones of Mediterranean Shipping Company’s cruise vessel MSC Sinfonia.

The vessel will be based in Durban between November and April 2010.

Others include the giant 150,000-gt Queen Mary 2, calling at Cape Town and Durban, the P&O cruise ship Aurora, Crystal Cruises’ Crystal Serenity, Fred Olsen’s Balmoral and Seven Seas Voyager and Holland America’s Amsterdam.

Later in the year, their two Vista class cruise ships Noordam and Westerdam will remain in South African waters for the duration of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

All these ships were meant to dock at the port of Mombasa.

In letters sent to the Kenya Ports Authority management, the shipping lines said their decision to give Mombasa a wider berth is due to the fact that the VAT would augment the cost of calling at the port.

If the liners make good their threat, the move will have knock-on effects on Dar and Zanzibar as the three ports complement one another.

Mombasa enjoys a huge market share of the business due to its proximity to wildlife sanctuaries, excellent sandy beaches and hotels. Dar es Salaam is second and then is Zanzibar.

In the letters, sent on diverse dates last month by the world’s leading cruise ship operators — Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and Costa Romantica — it was stated that the issue would be discussed by the European Cruise Council board meeting to be held sometime this month.

“The new requirements will push the cost of calling at the port of Mombasa up by 16 per cent. For instance, pilotage fees, which per operation are subjected to a minimum charge of $150, would rise to $174. Pilotage is but one of the services offered by KPA,” a letter from MSC dated September 17 this year reads.

It further says: “Note that, given the gravity of the problem for international cruise liners, the issue will be discussed at the European Cruise Council board meeting next month.
“MSC ships sail worldwide all year round, calling at important ports on the globe. Please believe me when I say that this is the first time we have had to deal with such a charge.”

A letter from Costa dated September 8 states: “We are now reviewing alternative port calls to avoid these cost increase and will advise you of any schedule changes we make. We will also be reporting this issue to our parent company, Carnival Corporation Plc, which runs the largest number of cruise ships in the world, including Holland America, Princes Cruise, Cunard /P&O Cruise, Seabourn, AID and Iberocruceros.

“Take this up with the relevant authority and warn them that they are in danger of losing major cruise business in Mombasa if they choose to impose such high fees.”

The marine services expected to be subjected to the punitive VAT provisions include pilotage fees, tug services, mooring services, port and harbour dues, supply of fresh water, dock, buoyage and anchorage, among a long list.

In response to the threats, Kenya Ports Authority chief operations manager Joseph Atonga said they had taken up the matter with relevant authorities and he expected a solution soon.

In his letter dated September 25, Mr Atonga, however, ruled that the status quo would be maintained until the matter was resolved through the relevant ministry.


“Let me highlight how relevant it is for Kenya to rethink its decision, going by the huge direct and indirect economic impact of every ship that calls at Mombasa. The effects of the decision would be detrimental to the sector,” said the MSC letter sent to KPA managing director James Mulewa.

According to statistics from Cruise Lines International Association, a passenger ship carrying 2,000 people and a 950 crew generates an average $322,705 in spending per call in a home port.

A similar ship making port of call visits generates $275,000 in onshore spending.

The association estimates that 14 million people will go cruising during the current year.

Cruise season begins in the month of November and lasts till March, the following year, during the European winter season.

In the region, according to Abercrombie and Kent Kenya director Auni Kanji, a cruise tourist spends approximately $200 a day.

Research shows that between 50 and 70 per cent of passengers say they would like to return for land-based holidays after visiting a new country for the first time.

The business has been in the doldrums recently, with the country recording eight calls last year as opposed to 20 in 2005/2006.

The port of Mombasa expects to receive eight or 10 vessels this season, starting November.

Costa shipping lines have, however, announced that they will give Mombasa a wide berth if the VAT is not removed.

“Currently, we have a total of eight calls scheduled for 2009/2010 season, starting early December, for the third year. We are now reviewing alternative ports of call to avoid these cost increases. We will advise you of any schedule changes,” said Costa Crociere SPA in another letter dated December 8, 2008, to KPA.

East Africa ports, especially Mombasa, are expected to benefit from South Africa’s expected cruise shipping boom around the World Cup.

Meanwhile, Kenya has protested at the United Kingdom’s move to impose a £95 ($153) on tourists from London to developing countries.

This will impact negatively on the tourism industry, Mr Balala told an international forum.

Speaking at the 18th session of the UNWTO General Assembly held in Astana, Kazakhstan, Mr Balala said the move will block many tourists from visiting Kenya and other developing countries.

Report by Ben Sanga and Julius Bosire

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/670816/-/qxs6i5z/-/

If Durban plays its cards right, it could become Africa's cruise capital all year round. The demand is obviously there. Now let's just get that Point Waterfront cruise passenger terminal built already.

-------------------

Sinfonia's sales show SA still craves sea cruises despite tough times
October 14, 2009

By SAMANTHA ENSLIN-PAYNE

Tough times have failed to dent demand for cruise holidays among South Africans, according to Allan Foggitt, a director at Starlight Cruises, the country sales agent for the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).

This was evident from a sharp rise in sales this year for the MSC-owned Sinfonia, which will operate out of Durban for the first time next month.

Foggitt said yesterday that there had been a far stronger booking trend this year, with sales 20 percent ahead of the combined sales last year for the MSC cruise ships Melody and Rhapsody.

Attracting the disposal income of South Africans who were harder up had been successful for several reasons. Foggitt said more people were now choosing to travel closer to home as a way to cut costs, and a cruise holiday was popular as it had an exotic appeal.

Five years ago South Africa's cruise season was five weeks long and it attracted about 25 000 people. Last year 70 000 people went on cruise holidays in a season that now extends from November to April.

The Sinfonia will, between November and April, sail between Durban and Mozambique, Mauritius, the Comores and Madagascar on cruises that range in length between two and 11 days.

To keep prices reasonable and yet make it viable to operate the ship profitably means it will be sailing almost continuously. With the exception of New Year and the Mauritius cruises, where the vessel docks for three nights, the ship never spends a night in port.

The turnaround time for the vessel when it arrives in port to when it leaves again for a new cruise is four hours, during which time more than 2 000 people disembark and another 2 000 board the ship.

Foggitt said more business had been attracted through a combination of strategies.

A cruise on the Sinfonia, starting at R800 a person a night with children under 18 travelling free, was "great value", he said.

The daily rate includes accommodation, three meals, two teas and entertainment. But it excludes drinks, gambling, spa visits and beauty treatments.

Cruise liners elsewhere in the world had cut prices to keep business, but Foggitt said besides offering discounts for early bookings the fare was the same as last year on average.

The growth in bookings had also been due to a focus on attracting conference bookings as the Sinfonia had a fully equipped conference and business centre.

The Sinfonia, which is a far more modern ship than those previously operated from South Africa, had also attracted a wealthier clientele.

Previously, the eight suites on the Melody were often not booked and there was concern that it would be difficult to fill the 135 suites on the Sinfonia. But Foggitt said the suites, which cost about R3 000 a person a day, had been heavily booked on every cruise.

The strong demand for the Sinfonia this summer meant that next summer the vessel would be back in South Africa for an extended season that would include May 2011.

MSC, which has a stable of 11 cruise ships mostly operating in the Mediterranean, recently launched the Splendida. By next year, with the launch of the Magnifica, the group expects to achieve its target of carrying 1.2 million guests a year.

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=563&fArticleId=5201312

^^

the good, the bad and the ugly all fit into the equation here, R-SA

the good would be a flash terminal, the bad would be the SCH Development and the Ugly falls on the sand hopper positioning.

Currently, bolted on the north side of the new north groyne is the TEMPORARY SAND HOPPER TRANSFER STRUCTURE. One recalls the discreet old hopper station adjacent to Thirty’s, discreet being the preferred installation. Currently we have a fully exposed contraption with temporary carnage for handling the dop pumping equipment straddling access to the soon (March 2010) to be completed new north groyne.

http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/1%20July%202009/DHEW_062%202009-07-01%2011-40-52.htm

Strategically and in a order of importance, the siting of the permanent sand pumping infrastructure takes precedence over a cruise terminal and DPDC plans. Picture provided clearly exhibits the space required.

Whilst up to 18 options are tabled for this area consuming plant, many cannot be considered until the DPDC issue is settled. One such option is to place the sand pumping plant and hopper at the cruise terminals current location and pump the sand up point road to the distributing stations at the beach, as only A berth, i.e. behind the NSRI Base offers a in port cost effective alternative.

The delay in these decisions eminate from the failure of cape town marine engineers PRDW, whos plan it was to install a 300 mtr pier from the south breakwater due southeast into the existing undersea sand trap and suck up the littoral deposit for transfer under the channel for dispersal along Durban beaches. As this source is purer than mothers milk in sand quality terms, so would Durbans beaches become. Doubt has now fallen the same marine engineers plans and calculations related to the SCH, hence the political interference, as if the sand pumping is seen to play second fiddle to DPDCs plans noise will be made, all along the beach , not just from the Clubs.


When the sand pumping scheme is sorted out, perhaps the passengers on the cruise ships will frequent Durban’s beaches and not those pristine locations they sail away to.

:cheers:

PD.

well you said it yourself the position can only be decided after the DPDCs decision is final with the SCH, once all that is iron out surely they can pick a suitable spot for the pumping station? I agree that the cruise terminal should play 2nd fiddle to it seeing that the beach is more of an important asset to us than some building for 2 cruise ships.

Good, can you get letters today to MSC and DPDC informing them of our decisions and lets move on.

PD.

^^ letters? Mate i been meaning to ask for a long time but are you retired?

retired/retrenched its all the same :D

^^ letters? Mate i been meaning to ask for a long time but are you retired?

Retired, No. Apparently, around Durban pigeons deliver letters faster than e-mail.:cheers:

Yes, i can see your point on that one, you do write so much that email servers may not have a clue what the point of your letter is an return to sender

Yes, i can see your point on that one, you do write so much that email servers may not have a clue what the point of your letter is an return to sender

I note the "YES":cheers:

Pixman provides another fine set of shots, good man.

http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/16%20Oct%202009/Durban%20Harbour%20Widening%20Project%2016%20Oct%20200901.html

Has the widening officially been completed?

^^

to answer your question, NO, the shipping channel needs to be demarkated back to the centre line of the channel, its presently on the northern side to give access to the contractor to extract the remain sections of the old tunnel on the southern section and dredge to grade at those sections of tunnel.ie-19mtr.

Word is it should be done by mid Dec, remaining: topping of the new north groyne till late feb2010.inshalla.

PD.

is this the area for the proposed cruise terminal?

http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/16%20Oct%202009/DHEW%2016%20Oct%202009_59.jpg


& have they deepened the entrance yet?

1. Yebo, or close thereabout (possibly a bit more to the left of that pic)
2. I think most of the work is now done.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somali pirates seized a Greek cargo ship and a Yemeni fishing boat in the latest attacks demonstrating their ability to evade international naval forces, gunmen and officials said on Wednesday.

Patrols by a multinational naval force in the strategic shipping lanes that link Europe to Asia through the busy Gulf of Aden only appear to have forced the sea gangs to extend their range and strike deeper into the Indian Ocean.

One of the pirates, Hassan, told Reuters by telephone from the coastal town of Haradheere that three of his comrades were wounded while seizing the bulk carrier late on Tuesday.

"There was brief fighting before we captured it. Three of my friends were injured," he said, adding that its crew were safe.

Pirates from the failed Horn of Africa state are holding at least 13 vessels and more than 230 crew hostage, including a British couple whose yacht was hijacked off the Seychelles.

Spain's Defense Minister on Wednesday called for international cooperation to trace ransoms paid to the pirates, which she said were channeled through British-based law firms.

"The international community has to cut the source of funding, which gets to the pirates via payments made by European law firms," Carme Chacon told Spanish National Radio, singling out "certain British law firms."

Spain is trying to secure the release of fishing boat Alakrana, whose home port is in the Basque Country, which was seized on October 2 with 36 crew on board.

Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Program named the Greek cargo ship taken on Tuesday as the 150 m (492 ft) Marshall Islands-flagged MV Filitsa.

He said it had three Greek officers and 19 Filipino sailors aboard and was carrying bulk urea to South Africa (Durban).

The European Union naval force EU Navfor said the 23,709 ton Filitsa had been hijacked in the south Somali Basin, some 400 nautical miles northeast of the Seychelles; around 1,000 nautical miles east of the Somali capital Mogadishu.

The distance roughly equals the longest range Somali pirate attack to date; an attempt to seize a Hong Kong-flagged crude oil tanker on Monday.

That bid failed, but it was a stark demonstration of the pirates' ambition to outwit the modern navies deployed against them and defeat more determined defenses by their civilian prey.

NATO and the EU play a lead role against pirates in the region, but navy ships from China, Russia, Japan and other nations are also involved in the operation that is stretched thin in the vast Indian Ocean.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091111/wl_nm/us_somalia_piracy

AAAAARGH, give us your UREA or we`ll place you in even more KAK.:lol:

PD.

^^ been thinking about this, is it in SA intrest to help stop the pirates or just ensure it doesnt reach our coast line?

The pirates are actually diverting alot of ships towards South Africa, so I don't think the gov is too interested....

^^ thats what I was thinking (I was debating the economic benfits vs the political ones - in my head)

^^ thats what I was thinking (I was debating the economic benfits vs the political ones - in my head)

we purchased a defensive suit of corvette, send them to deal with the enemy. This is the USA way of looking after their interests.

or do we go the silent diplomacy way with the subs.na their batteries are flat i heard.That could result in a bit of ama glug glug of the wrong kind.:lol:

OK, so can we learn from the pirates, yes we can, we blockade the cape passage and charge huge fees to the worlds shipping fleet which is shit scared of going past the somalis and we become the new arabs of the planet.

Morals, well there being eroded anyway. JUST BRAINSTORMING.

PD.

^^ yeah but our intrests arnt to deal with the enemy (they are making us money) at the same time we dont want to appear overly happy about the piracy (even if we are) so we dont do anything rash, we just claim our navy is purely defence orintated and that we are using it to ensure the cape route remains pirate free and protect our coast line, all the while racking up cash from stop overs in our ports (which start to make sense if you have to send a ship round here anyway i would think)

I hope this speeds up the construction of the proposed cruise terminal at the Point. DB, get cracking on designing an iconic terminal capable of hosting a min of 3,000 passengers (just to be comfortably within expected volumes)...

--------------

MSC Cruises urges Transnet to upgrade Durban terminal
November 17, 2009

By SAMANTHA ENSLIN-PAYNE


MSC Cruises has made a guarantee to Transnet that 150 000 passengers will embark and disembark at the Durban port this season in a bid to get the state-owned enterprise to invest in a cruise terminal.

Pierfrancesco Vago, the chief executive of MSC Cruises, said at the weekend: "We have given Transnet a written commitment on volumes for the next three years. Whether we meet the target or not we are committed to paying."

MSC Cruises pays R100 for each passenger embarking and disembarking at the harbour to port authorities, meaning that Transnet is guaranteed a minimum income of R15 million each year for the next three years.

Vago said the lack of a cruise terminal was a huge issue as a passenger's holiday experience began on arrival at the port. A passenger that began a cruise unhappy would invariably not enjoy the experience. "It's time now they upgraded the facilities," Vago said.

MSC Cruises' ship the Sinfonia, which has the capacity to carry 2 100 passengers, began its first five-month season in South Africa this weekend.

Alan Foggit, a director of Starlight Cruises, which is the South African sales agent for MSC Cruises, said the Sinfonia was expected to produce turnover of R220m in the current cruise season, generating R16m in commission for travel agents.

Currently passengers use N Shed at the Durban port, a partially converted warehouse. MSC Cruises has been operating in South African waters for several years, with the Rhapsody and Melody cruise liners.

Vago said a cruise terminal needed to be bigger than N Shed as 2 000 people disembarked after each cruise and a further 2 000 embarked, all in the space of a few hours. A cruise terminal should be like an airport, with proper customs facilities, seating, shops and other services, such as an airbridge connecting the quayside and the ship.

"We need the comfort of a terminal that could also generate revenue for Transnet."

Vago said MSC Cruises was tackling this issue with the authorities.

Transnet spokesman John Dludlu said the passenger terminal in Durban was always part of its capital investment programme to accommodate the growth in the cruise liner and tourism businesses.

"In partnership with our cruise liner clients, such as MSC and the city of Durban, we're in constant engagements around the design implications and planning for passenger traffic in and out of the port."

MSC Cruises has 10 ships in its stable and will launch its 11th vessel next year. It operates cruises in North America, South America, the Mediterranean, Europe and along the west coast of Africa and the east coast of southern Africa.

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5247726&fSectionId=561&fSetId=662

^^

unfortunatly you dont get much for 15m these days, when you can alternativly handle cars 365 days a year.

perhaps swing one of those disused A380 bridges out of KSIA and stick it in behind the NSRI, :lol: followed by a gentle stroll thru the point to Ushaka and beyond.

In the current scheme of things within Transnet politics and in all seriousness this is beyond a nice to have as they just dont have the budget having committed it to other cost overruns.

PD.

What other cost overruns have they commited their budget to?

What other cost overruns have they commited their budget to?

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page326289?oid=331056&sn=2009%20Detail&pid=287226

todays news

and i did mention things 7 months ago when i joined.

Just to save everyone else the hassle of going to the site to read the article I've pasted it below, removing the table of remuneration simply cos it was a pain to reformat

I don't see how the article has ANYTHING to do with cost overruns eating up the budget, its an article about how much they pay external consultants, and mentions NOTHING about budget figures.

This character had many good things to say, too many to mention here, but he was saddened to the bone by the endless railway lines that he saw standing idle around the countryside, and he remains depressed about how many stations stand empty, or are vandalised or even converted into whorehouses and places of ill repute. Funny, maybe, but not good.

Railways have forever been synonymous with pioneering advances becoming serious, and civilisation about to make its permanent stamp of arrival. In South Africa, the past decade and more has seen the railway system disappearing up its own fundamental. Today, Transnet exists as a pure monopolist with toll gates at the ports and pipelines, and of course national railways, where it extracts mountains of flesh from mining companies, running coal out to ports on the east coast, and iron ore to the west coast.

Transnet stumbles on, as a lamentable and tragic story. No longer does South Africa manufacture its own rolling stock, as it did not much more than ten years ago. All that, and much more, has to be imported, further injuring the country's ever-shrinking foreign exchange reserves, as the country's mining and industrial bases continue to contract under increasing government interventions.

The new era at Transnet continues to be characterised by the charmless spin of some of the world's best paid executives, who, insecure beyond measure, pay some of the world's biggest external consulting fees. Maria Ramos was paid a salary of R2.6m for the Transnet financial year to March 31 2005, after joining on January 1 2004. Her pay increased stiffly, to R5.4m in 2008, a year when she was also paid a bonus of R5.8m. In February 2009, she quit and moved on to CEO of Absa, one of South Africa's big-four banks.

The most recent Transnet annual report states that it paid fees to managerial and technical consultants, but provides no more detail on the billion rand that flew that way. These monstrous amounts of cash raise leading questions over what Transnet's directors know, or do not know, and over what they do, or do not do.


During the latest financial year, guaranteed remuneration for Transnet's 14 executives was a total of R45.5m. In addition, there were "non-guaranteed" performance bonuses of R25.9m in total that were splashed out on these executives, as they signed off one consultant's fee invoice after another. While Transnet's executive pay has been exceptionally high since 2005, in that year it paid out R419m to consultants. That number has exploded to a billion rand a year, a truly ugly thing that has vicious momentum, and will refuse to go away, never mind resign.

There is the slightest sign of a conscience somewhere in all this. On May 15 2008 Ramos was appointed as a non-executive director of SABMiller, one of the world's best companies, but quit the position on February 26 2009, after being appointed CEO of Absa. According to SABMiller, "Ms Ramos waived her fees of £48 994, which were instead paid by the company to a charity nominated by Ms Ramos". Charity starts, of course, at home. (http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page326289?oid=331056&sn=2009%20Detail&pid=287226)

^^
please could you not mis-quote my posts, you are not my spokesperson and i have related the newsclip to previous information perhaps read it all in context and then come back, TB.

:cheers:

PD.

Cruise ship bonanza for SA

November 18 2009 at 11:58AM
By Suren Naidoo

South Africa is set for a money-spinning cruise tourism bonanza heading into next year with Durban at the heart of the action. The highly-anticipated MSC Sinfonia - touted to be the largest and most modern cruise ship to operate out of South Africa - docked in its home port of Durban for the first time on Friday, kicking off the season.

At 58 600 tons and accommodating 2 100 passengers and crew - the MSC Sinfonia will operate out of Durban, calling at the port more than 30 times in the next five months and cruising the Indian Ocean between Mozambique, Mauritius, Reunion and the Comoros.

However, the MSC Sinfonia will not be the only high profile cruise ship to make its maiden voyage to Durban. Next year in March the uber-luxurious Queen Mary 2 - which is almost three times the size of the Sinfonia will call in Durban for the first time.

In addition, the big cruising news for the 2010 Fifa World Cup is that German promoter ONE OCEAN CLUB will bring two cruise ships from Holland America Cruise Lines - the MS Noordam and MS Westerdam - to operate as floating hotels for the duration of the tournament out of Durban and Port Elizabeth.

ONE OCEAN CLUB said with the thousands of visitors expected for the 2010 World Cup and the shortage of four- and five-star accommodation in the host cities of Durban and Port Elizabeth, it aimed to cater for this market.

It will be offering 4 600 additional beds for visitors on the two luxury cruise liners.

The MS Noordam will be based in Durban and travel to Port Elizabeth for big match days there, while the MS Westerdam will be based in Port Elizabeth and will make trips to Cape Town during the tournament.

For the summer cruising season going into 2010, Durban will have more than 50 calls at the port with about 30 of those being calls by the MSC Sinfonia, which is using Durban as its home base throughout the season. Other cruise liners expected in Durban and Richards Bay during the season include the Balmoral, Voyages of Discovery, Seven Seas Voyager, Silver Wind, Crystal Serenity and C Columbus.

"The arrival of the new generation MSC Sinfonia in South Africa ushers the region into a new era of world-class cruising. This is definitely the biggest single development in the local cruise industry since we first pioneered leisure cruising off this coast," said Allan Foggitt, director of Starlight Cruising, the general sales agents for MSC Cruises in South Africa.

"We have had unprecedented advance bookings, which confirms the timing for launching MSC Sinfonia in the country. Most departures in November and December are already either sold out or heavily booked and we are expecting more than 70 000 passengers on board this season," Foggitt added.

According to Starlight, MSC Sinfonia will represent a significant boost to the local economy.

Local hotels, transport and ground service providers in Durban are set to see an increase in demand, while food and beverage suppliers will also benefit.

Local airlines will also enjoy increases in catering for upcountry cruise guests who will jet into Durban for the cruise. Revenue to the Port of Durban in the form of port charges and taxes alone will be around R20-million for the year.

James Seymour, of Tourism KwaZulu-Natal and the secretary-general of the Cruise the Indian Ocean Association, said MSC Sinfonia's introduction to the Southern African market marked a bonanza year for cruise tourism in the region.

"This won't be our busiest cruise season on record, but it will definitely be a landmark with not only the introduction of MSC Sinfonia, but the maiden call of the giant Queen Mary 2 in Durban in March next year.

"This no doubt is going to be a major highlight next year together with the MS Noordam based in Durban for the 2010 World Cup," he said.

"Durban will be the Queen Mary 2's first port of call in South Africa on its world trip. Passengers are expected to visit a Zulu village in the Valley of a Thousand Hills. This is the case with many of the other cruise liners that will stop over in Durban.

"All this is going to have tremendous economic spin-offs for KZN and bolsters our efforts to promote the southern Indian Ocean region as the new frontier and destination of the cruise tourism industry."

This article was originally published on page 1 of The Mercury on November 18, 2009

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_i...3046757C575094

I think the highlighted bit is a good idea.

--------------------------

Terminal illness

South Africa has just 1 percent of the global cruise liner market, but the local market has grown and ocean cruises could corner a greater slice of the tourism pie with the right port facilities.

The cruise industry has, in the past three decades, grown from carrying about 1.4 million passengers in 1980 to more than 15.4 million this year. In 2004 MSC Cruises was carrying 250 000 passengers a year worldwide. This year it expects to carry more than 1 million passengers.

In 1978 the cruise season in South Africa totalled 1 000 people, which is half the number of people now accommodated on one cruise on the MSC Sinfonia that is currently operating out of Durban port. It is expected that during this season, which runs from November to April, passenger volumes on the Sinfonia will be about 75 000.

In South Africa 25 percent annual passenger growth is expected, which is line with global trends.

According to Pierfrancesco Vago, the chief executive at MSC Cruises, the business has proved recession-proof as it offered value for money. In South Africa, the aggressive marketing strategy has successfully targeted those wishing for a holiday that was somewhat "exotic" but affordable, with a mix of short and long cruises to suit "many different pockets". Its end-of-year cruises are close to being booked out.

But growth in the South African business is hamstrung by uninspiring port facilities that can leave those waiting to embark baking in the hot sun. The current facility, a converted warehouse, is neither big nor comfortable enough to handle the 2 000 passengers embarking. MSC Cruises is pushing Transnet to invest in a terminal similar in look and feel to an airport.

Transnet says it is in talks with MSC Cruises in this regard, but given that it is a freight firm with its hands full planning costly projects to boost the efficient handling of iron ore, coal and containers, it is not surprising that the cruise line industry is not top of its agenda.

Perhaps Transnet should offer a private sector firm a concession to build and operate a cruise terminal at the Durban port so it can be relieved of this headache.

Edited by Peter DeIonno. With contributions by Ingi Salgado, Ann Crotty and Samantha Enslin-Payne


http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5248012

who owns the other side of the bluff where the whaling station used to be, would they ever think of constructing another side of the port on that side

^^ I don't know who owns it (Military?)

But, ownership aside, that side is too exposed to the elements to be a viable harbour. The Bluff itself protects the Bay of Natal. But on the sea-side of the Bluff, nothing.

Durban dredging project on track
News - December 11, 2009

Engineering News reports that the first and largest part of the project to widen and deepen Durban’s harbour mouth is on track for completion in March 2010.

Freight logistics company Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) reports that the primary aim of the project is to improve the 
safety of navigation of vessels 
entering or leaving the port. The project will also allow larger post-Panamax vessels to enter the harbour.

According to Engineering News, the extra width of the new harbour mouth will ensure that there is less chance of accidents and that the port is kept open, even in the event of an accident. Although the entrance was designed for single entry or exit, the harbour authorities are now investigating the possibility that smaller vessels might be able to enter and exit simultaneously.

"Work on the first part of the project included the demolition of affected buildings and structures on the north bank of the harbour mouth, the demolition of the existing north breakwater, the construction of a new north breakwater, dry excavation and dredging, the strengthening of the existing south breakwater, the provision of navigation aids and the restoration of the sand bypass facility," Engineering News reported.

The new harbour entrance was designed with a width of 220m at its narrowest point, while the 
approach channels will be dredged to a depth of 18m and 19m, and the entrance channel to a depth of 16m and 17m. The height of the southern breakwater was raised by 1.5m and the
width of the breakwater cap was increased from 9.5m to 11.5m to accommodate the construction crane.

Engineering News said the TPT indicates that, in the course of the dry excavation and dredging, 10 million cubic metres
of rubble and sand will have been removed and either placed in the approved dump site 5km offshore, or used in the construction of the new north breakwater.

Once the relevant berths in the harbour are deepened, the Port of Durban will be able to host vessels of up to 45m in beam and capable of carrying 9,200 twenty-foot equivalent unit containers.


http://www.sandandgravel.com/news/article.asp?v1=12367

KZN crisis to hit World Cup
Dec 20 2009 09:02

Elma Kloppers

Johannesburg - The ongoing container crisis in KwaZulu-Natal may hamper the World Cup preparations.

Hundreds of trailer trucks that carry high-cube containers with some goods for the coming World Cup soccer tournament are stranded in the province, because the containers are a mere 300mm too high, according to the country's transport regulations.

The containers hold, among other things, marketing goods and equipment for the soccer teams and international media. These items have already landed in the Durban harbour by ship, says Gavin Kelly, spokesperson for the Road Freight Association (RFA).

It is hoped that the situation will draw the attention of the national authority and government which, at this stage, have failed to react to a request sent by the RFA to President Jacob Zuma's office, the Minister of Trade and Industry, and the Minister of Transport to salvage the situation.

A planned meeting between the national Department of Transport and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport for Friday has meanwhile been postponed to January.

This haulage crisis started after the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport on November 29 began to put into effect legislation prohibiting transportation of these containers.

Trucks carrying the containers have since been impounded and fined up to R10 000.

According to the Cape Town Regional Chamber of Trade and Industry, truck drivers with these containers have also on occasion been fined in the Cape.

A moratorium was previously placed on the legislative provision restricting the travelling height of trucks to 4.3m.

The height of a trailer truck with a high-cube container is 4.6m, and South Africa has no trucks low enough to transport the containers within the legal height limit.

Five million cube containers have been transported on South Africa's national roads in the past decade.

At least 50% of all containers coming to the country's ports are high-cube containers, which are international standard ISO containers.

Interestingly enough, the height of a double-decker bus is 4.65m, but these are exempt from the legislation.

Kevin Martin, deputy chairperson of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders in KwaZulu-Natal's harbour carriers' division, says the situation may lead to a restructuring of the country's trailer-truck fleet, which could cost billions and significantly push up the costs of the logistics chain.

- Sake24.com


http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Channel=News_Home&ArticleId=1518-25_2565766&IsColumnistStory=False

KZN crisis to hit World Cup
Dec 20 2009 09:02

Elma Kloppers

Johannesburg - The ongoing container crisis in KwaZulu-Natal may hamper the World Cup preparations.

Hundreds of trailer trucks that carry high-cube containers with some goods for the coming World Cup soccer tournament are stranded in the province, because the containers are a mere 300mm too high, according to the country's transport regulations.

The containers hold, among other things, marketing goods and equipment for the soccer teams and international media. These items have already landed in the Durban harbour by ship, says Gavin Kelly, spokesperson for the Road Freight Association (RFA).

It is hoped that the situation will draw the attention of the national authority and government which, at this stage, have failed to react to a request sent by the RFA to President Jacob Zuma's office, the Minister of Trade and Industry, and the Minister of Transport to salvage the situation.

A planned meeting between the national Department of Transport and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport for Friday has meanwhile been postponed to January.

This haulage crisis started after the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport on November 29 began to put into effect legislation prohibiting transportation of these containers.

Trucks carrying the containers have since been impounded and fined up to R10 000.

According to the Cape Town Regional Chamber of Trade and Industry, truck drivers with these containers have also on occasion been fined in the Cape.

A moratorium was previously placed on the legislative provision restricting the travelling height of trucks to 4.3m.

The height of a trailer truck with a high-cube container is 4.6m, and South Africa has no trucks low enough to transport the containers within the legal height limit.

Five million cube containers have been transported on South Africa's national roads in the past decade.

At least 50% of all containers coming to the country's ports are high-cube containers, which are international standard ISO containers.

Interestingly enough, the height of a double-decker bus is 4.65m, but these are exempt from the legislation.

Kevin Martin, deputy chairperson of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders in KwaZulu-Natal's harbour carriers' division, says the situation may lead to a restructuring of the country's trailer-truck fleet, which could cost billions and significantly push up the costs of the logistics chain.

- Sake24.com


http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Channel=News_Home&ArticleId=1518-25_2565766&IsColumnistStory=False

There is a very easy solution - put it on rail to City Deep and buy less trailers to transport from City Deep to clients and safe money since the rail rates is less than half of what the road is charging!

Durban Bulk to double export capacity to 5 million tonnes

Wed Jan 27, 2010 12:53pm GMT

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa's Durban Bulk Connections plans to more than double its export capacity to 5 million tonnes within 18 months from 2.4 million last year to meet a rise in manganese exports, its head said on Wednesday.

Iain Geldart said the terminal, which handles various bulk commodities from its Durban facility, would export 3.5 million tonnes in 2010, of which 1.8 million would be coal, the same volume of the commodity it managed to ship last year.

South Africa's coal exports have been hampered by the inability of logistics group Transnet to bring all their material to the ports, which has forced producers to look for alternatives, including the facility at Durban.

"We will raise our export capacity to 3.5 million tonnes this year and to 5 million tonnes within 18 months... that will be mainly for manganese," he said at the sidelines of a coal exports conference.

Manganese is used in the production of steel.

Geldart said last year that the company hopes to build a new 3 million tonnes a year export facility at the Richards Bay port in South Africa, but is still waiting for a decision from the National Ports Authority.


http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE60Q0EL20100127

Interesting find...

-----------------

Shipwreck mystery is solved
By Barbara Cole

The mystery of the Durban shipwreck that was uncovered during dredging operations to widen and deepen the harbour entrance has finally been solved.

"And it is great to put a name and a face to her," said a delighted Vanessa Maitland, the maritime archaeologist known as the Agatha Christie of the deep.

Maitland was called in by the SA Heritage Resources Agency to investigate the mystery last year.

The wreck, now identified as the Steam Ship (SS) Karin, had been buried in 3m of sand and was 1.18km from the north breakwater, lying in the shipping channel.

She had six owners, the last being Smith's Coasters

While it was not considered a threat to navigation, if it was not removed it would certainly have posed a threat to the modern, larger ships calling into the port after Transnet's extensive renovations.

Maitland, of Durban North, had to find out all she could about the wreck and advise on how best it could be removed.

She had to don her diving gear to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Brass

Now, after five underwater trips to check on the chunks of metal, tangled brass pipes and steel plates that lay scattered on the seabed and after spending months searching through archives, the shipwreck sleuth has solved the riddle.

'It would cost millions to restore her, and who would want to?'
Maitland was able to trace the 470-ton ship's history since the vessel was built in Holland in 1918.

The ship was called the Leksveer then, becoming the Maastad in 1920, the Maggie O'Regan in 1921 and finally Karin in 1923.

Her first port of registration was Rotterdam, then Cork in Ireland, followed by London and lastly Durban.

She had six owners, the last being Smith's Coasters.

Maitland feels that having had so many owners, the ship was "a bit of a tub".

"No one had her more than two years. She was not well founded: the owners possibly did not like her problems," Maitland said.

But how did she come to end up at the bottom of Durban harbour?

It was October 22, 1927, and the ship had set sail from Durban for East London with a cargo of sugar and diesel.

"What I gathered, she was loaded badly and was top-heavy and listing," said Maitland.

"She turned to go down the coast and there was heavy weather. A wave washed over her and she took on 80 tons of water.

"The crew tried to sort out the problem, but Karin turned belly up and went straight down."

One man died and his body washed up on the beach. Everyone else survived.

Maitland will now try to find out the name of the dead crewman.

The ship was blown up to flatten it, thus preventing it becoming a shipping hazard at the time.

Now, more than 80 years later, divers put charges around the wreck to loosen it so that the fragmented pieces could be removed.

"There was no spectacular explosion, just a little boop on the sea. It was so small that no one was able to get pictures," Maitland said.

While tons of corroding metal were brought to the surface and stacked on the quayside ready to be taken to the scrapyard for recycling, some interesting items were also recovered.

A frying pan, forks, spoons, shoes, ceramic shards, tools and the ship's bell, which will eventually end up in a museum, have proved fascinating finds for Maitland.

"It would cost millions to restore her, and who would want to?

"It is not a famous ship from Tudor times. She's just been a wreck for 83 years."

Yesterday was Maitland's last day at the harbour site and she will now turn her attention to finding out the name of the captain and other details.

"There was a court of inquiry and I still need to get those facts from the National Archives in Pretoria before making my final report," she said last night.


This article was originally published on page 3 of The Daily News on February 09, 2010.


http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=181&art_id=vn20100209125047630C432576

Nice to see they actually pay attention to these type of things, and that there is a name to the ship.

fantastic little bit of history there. contrary to what some previous posters like to state, the widen has been undertaken with consideration to the environment and history. i dont see the small craft harbour being done any differently

Didn't even know they found a wreck! speaking of bigger ships coming to our harbour, don't forget! March 13th! QUEEN MARY 2!!!!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Queen_Mary_2_05_KMJ.jpg

Will be there wif my Camera.... :D

same here, lol, I told the boss I wanted leave for that day, he looks at me squint and says "we dont work Saturdays" :crazy:

is it def the 13th March ?
According to the itinerary on the website for the QM2, it says 23rd ?
http://www.qm2.org.uk/itinerary.html

Not unexpectedly, Sinfonia's debut in Durbs was a massive success, with more 70,000 people have taken a cruise. Such was the success, Starlight Cruises are now expanding the cruise offerings with an extended season, and are expecting 85,000 pax in the 2010/11 season. If this doesn't justify a new dedicated cruise terminal for Durbs, I don't know what does.

---------------


Bumper first season ensures MSC Sinfonia's return to southern Africa for extended period starting November 2010

Issued by: Starlight Cruises

[Johannesburg, 23 February 2010] -
The MSC Sinfonia, the biggest and most modern ship to operate out of South African waters, will at the end of March 2010 depart for Europe following a successful first season in southern Africa and the Indian Ocean islands, endorsing the decision to bring the cruise ship back for a second extended period starting in November this year through to May 2011.

“MSC Sinfonia has been well received in her first season, with average occupancy over 90%, and total passengers for the season in excess of 70 000,” said Allan Foggitt, Marketing Director of Starlight Cruises, the general sales agent for MSC Cruises in South Africa.

“Onboard feedback received notes that an average of 93% of passengers rate the cruise experience good or excellent,” exclaimed Foggitt.

The ship hosts 777 cabins, of which 135 are suites with private balconies. This appeal, in contrast to the ship's predecessors, has led to a new public entering the cruising market finding the offering a more attractive holiday alternative. Suites have been through the course of the 2009/10 season the first to sell, with most sold on all departures.

Additional success factors like 'children under 18 cruise free', allowed a popular value family holiday, while the conferencing and incentive sector found the ship an attractive destination for both small and large business getaways alike.

MSC Sinfonia will depart on 1 April 2010 for the summer cruise season in the Mediterranean. The 2010/11 local season will see the ship arriving back in South Africa on 9 November and will once again operate a selection of 3/4/5 and 11-night Indian Ocean cruises. The season will comprise 50 departures, as opposed to the current season's 38, and over 85 000 passengers are expected to enjoy the modern and magnificent vessel.

Bookings for the 2010/11 season are now open, with attractive discount offers available for early bookings.

Here is your chance to not miss the boat!!

Early booking special for M&G readers... Cruise to Maputo and the Barra Peninsula aboard the MSC Sinfonia and save up to R3 245 per couple.

Take advantage of this special on one of the following departures and you could be shopping and sightseeing in Maputo and then soaking up the sun on the soft white beaches of Barra Lodge with the one you love.

Day 1 - Depart Durban
Welcome aboard the Sinfonia in the Port of Durban. Make sure you are on deck at 2pm for the sail-away party as she casts off, en route to Maputo.

Day 2 – Maputo
Maputo (previously called Lourenco Marques) is the sprawling capital of Mozambique. There are some excellent restaurants where you can enjoy cold beers and spicy peri-peri LM prawns. Optional tours to the museums and the city, including lunch at the original Casa del Sol restaurant, will be available to purchase on board.

Day 3 – Barra Peninsula
As soon as the ship has been cleared, general disembarkation will commence for your fun-filled 'expedition' day on the pristine beaches of the Barra Peninsula. Tonight's tropical party on deck features all the ship's entertainment team and is always a highlight of the cruise.

Day 4 – At sea
Spend the day lounging around the pool in a deck chair or enjoying the dozens of daily activities, which range from aerobics classes and dance lessons to bridge competitions. With three meals daily, including a midnight buffet, gala dinner, cocktail parties, tea and pastries served at various intervals, the waistline will be your only concern as the Melody steams towards Durban.

Day 5 – Durban
Your early morning arrival in Durban signals the end of an exciting fun-filled holiday.

Departure dates

Departures visiting Maputo and Barra Lodge

* 15 to 19 November
* 29 November to 3 December
* 10 to 15 January or 24 to 28 January

Departures visiting Maputo and Portuguese Island

* 22 to 26 November
* 17 to 21 January or 31 Jan to 4 February

Special rates cannot be used in conjunction with any other discount offer.

Discounts are capacity controlled and can be withdrawn at any time.

Included in your fare:

* Accommodation in category booked
* Three meals plus midnight snacks daily
* Captain's cocktail party and gala dinner
* Singles party, floorshows and discotheque nightly
* All games, daily activities, aerobics and gymnasium

* Casino

This special offer must be booked directly with Starlight Cruises.

For brochures, reservations or information on the Sinfonia Starlight Cruises

JHB – 011 807-5111, PTA 012 342-4496, DBN 031 303-3572, CPT 021 555-3005

The nine storey, 58600 ton MSC Sinfonia with capacity for 2 100 passengers, is one of MSC Cruises's illustrious stable of 10 ships, with the November 2009 arrival signifying southern Africa's debut to world-class cruising.

MSC Crociere currently has the most modern fleet in the world, comprising 10 ships: MSC Splendida and MSC Fantasia (the largest ships ever built for a European ship owner), MSC Poesia, MSC Orchestra, MSC Musica, MSC Sinfonia, MSC Armonia, MSC Opera, MSC Lirica and MSC Melody. MSC Magnifica will be launched in 2010. The fleet cruises year round in the Mediterranean and seasonally in Northern Europe, the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean, North America and Canada, South America, the Indian Ocean, South and West Africa. MSC Crociere is the only company in the world to receive the “6 Golden Pearls” award from the Bureau Veritas in recognition of its high level of quality management and environmental protection. MSC Crociere cares about the welfare of children, and as a responsible market leader, it believes in making a positive impact in the regions where it operates. To this end, the company recently forged a partnership with UNICEF to fund a community project aimed at providing disadvantaged children in Brazil with a high quality education.

Visit: http://www.msccruises.com or http://www.starlight.co.za for more information.




http://www.mg.co.za/pressoffice/starlightcruises/PressRelease.php?StoryID=205405

is it def the 13th March ?
According to the itinerary on the website for the QM2, it says 23rd ?
http://www.qm2.org.uk/itinerary.html

oh crap, thanks for that! seems they updated it! darn, its a Tuesday. Need to make a plan.

23rd March?!?!!?.. hmmm...

I might actually be in Cosi Bay... ffs...!!!!

yeah they really need to do something about a proper terminal for these cruise ships as its a very lucrative market for the city

Good man pixman delivers a raft of information.

thx PM.

http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/Harbour%20Entrance/Durban%20Harbour%20wid%20table.htm

:cheers:

PD.

great pics, hey PD whats on the other sdie of the bluff as I see some treatment plants and a 3 story building but the south of that are a few gree roofed buildings with what looks like a sports field practically on the beach

great pics, hey PD whats on the other sdie of the bluff as I see some treatment plants and a 3 story building but the south of that are a few gree roofed buildings with what looks like a sports field practically on the beach

Yea,

i think your on about this shot

http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/1%20Feb%202010/DHEW%201%20Feb%202010_178.html

G-5 had their antifer and dollos casting yards on that ground. The buildings are associated witht the treatment works, which are all derilict. So much for pristine environmental care of the bluff, have a look at the destruction of the beach at the toe of the sth breakwater and that used to be a immaculate piece of beach. Well, at least old Andre the transnet bashing squatter still has his house on the beach , bottom left, right in the surf spray.

http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/7%20Jan%202010/DHEW_6Jan10__20.html

Na I dont think its the G5 stuff, they look more permenant than that almost military in fact and have a green field in the middle of them. Is this all military or city land?

This pic is a beauty!

http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/1%20Feb%202010/img/DHEW%201%20Feb%202010_124.jpg

This shot has the stadium peeping over the top

http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/1%20Feb%202010/img/DHEW%201%20Feb%202010_184.jpg

Na I dont think its the G5 stuff, they look more permenant than that almost military in fact and have a green field in the middle of them. Is this all military or city land?

i honestly dont know i would be guessing to say they are housing for parks board officers perhaps!!

QM2 arrives next Tuesday 6am & Departs 6pm the same day! :banana:

Even better news...

According to a report in the Mercury on March 10, 2010, (Network supplement, page 4) both the North and South Piers of the harbour mouth are to be reopened to the public later this year. Even better, the intention is to develop a ferry service across the harbour entrance from the Point to the South Pier and "discussions with existing boat operators are already underway, according port manager, Ricky Bhikraj." According to the report: "This will allow access to an historic part of Durban, allowing the public to picnic oppposite the remains of the once famous Cave Rock and to enjoy the many rock pools at low tide."

If this happens, this could lead to ferry rides across the harbour similar to Sydney Harbour. This could include stops at Wilson's Wharf, the future Point Waterfront, Bluff South Pier, and the Bluff Waterfront (yes, there's a Bluff Waterfront!). Can't wait for this to happen! Finally a public transport link from the Point to the Bluff. The article even speculates that this may lead to access to the top of the Bluff Headland.

bluff waterfront?

Yup, Bluff Waterfront. Shocking, eh?

If you go on a harbour cruise, the cruise goes right up to it at the end of the silt channel (I didn't even know it existed until I went on one!). There you'll find a restaurant (the Galley) and a pub (the Wheelhouse), both of which overlook the moored yachts. When I asked the cruise captain what this place was, he called it "The Bluff Waterfront". I later found out its official name is actually the Bluff Yacht Club.

Check it out: http://www.bluffyachtclub.co.za/

Durbs has lots of interesting spots that most locals don't even know about. If a regular ferry service was started in the Durban harbour, this spot could be used by locals who want to get to central Durbs asap. A quick cruise across the harbour from here to Wilsons Wharf would shave tons of time off vs. a car journey via Edwin Swales / M4 / Vic Embankment.

holy crap, its got a website too!

holy crap, its got a website too!

:lol:

QM2 arrives next Tuesday 6am & Departs 6pm the same day! :banana:

So early? :eek:

Where's the best place to be when she leaves?

So early? :eek:

Where's the best place to be when she leaves?

On board

So early? :eek:

Where's the best place to be when she leaves?

According to Moyo's twitter page they will be serving cocktails on the Pier so for now that looks like the best spot seeing that Transnet have closed the new Pier that forms the harbour entrance. Im tying to get hold of the guys at Point Bay to see if they will allow me onto the Penthouse pool deck to get some pics, amazing view from there.

Also trying to get hold of CT Port manager to see if he can arrange me a visitors pass to the Harbour Control tower, but I dont think that will come through..... unless PD got any connections....:smug:

try and organise durbs :)

According to Moyo's twitter page they will be serving cocktails on the Pier so for now that looks like the best spot seeing that Transnet have closed the new Pier that forms the harbour entrance. Im tying to get hold of the guys at Point Bay to see if they will allow me onto the Penthouse pool deck to get some pics, amazing view from there.

Also trying to get hold of CT Port manager to see if he can arrange me a visitors pass to the Harbour Control tower, but I dont think that will come through..... unless PD got any connections....:smug:

best bet is, phone the NSRI office just ask if you can make a small donation and take a few shots tomorrow morning as she enters, worth a try, amazing balcony view there on the inside of the harbour as she turns in:cheers:.

no worries the port is opening the new north groyne for public access from 05-30, pulled a few strings lads , dont mention it.

http://www.cunard-sa.com/ourships_qm2.html

http://www.pixmanimages.co.za/Aerial%20shots/1%20Feb%202010/DHEW%201%20Feb%202010_175.html

http://themercury.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

aArticle rank 22 Mar 2010 The MercuryTERRY HUTSON Gates open to welcome Queen Mary 2 ZoomBookmarkSharePrintListenTranslateTRANSNET National Ports Authority (TNPA) will open the gates to the new North Pier at the entrance channel to Durban harbour to enable people to watch the arrival and departure of the 150 000-ton Cunard passenger liner Queen Mary 2 tomorrow.

Number 2 Gate at the end of Mahatma Gandhi Road (Point) will be opened between 5.30am and 7.30am and again between 5.30pm and 7.30pm.
The public will also have access to Festival Island (next to the Maritime Museum) and Wilson’s Wharf which provide excellent vantage points to see the Cunard flagship.

Queen Mary 2 is expected to enter Durban harbour at 6am and will sail at 6pm.

The only stipulation imposed by the TNPA is that no liquor will be allowed on the North Pier, which remains a construction site until March 31. Thousands are expected to visit the harbour to see the great ship on her maiden visit to Durban.

Printed and distributed by NewpaperDirect | www.newspaperdirect.com, US/Can: 1.877.980.4040, Intern: 800.6364.6364 | Copyright and protected by applicable law.

Thanks for the info...will try get there after work tomorrow

From this morning courtesy of MarcForrest from twitter

http://i42.************/11lm1a9.jpg

http://i44.************/1zpmtjl.jpg

From ECR Big Breakfast Blog

http://i40.************/212spiu.jpg