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Ports & Shipping News

Port of Maputo reports record volume for 2023

By: Irma Venter 16th January 2024 The Maputo Port Development Company (MPDC) says the Port of Maputo has achieved a record volume of 31.2-million tons in 2023, up 16% on the previous year. MPDC is a public-private partnership between State-owned Mozambican Railway Company (Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique, or CFM) and Portus... →

Cape Town calls for deadline on private sector port involvement

By: Irma Venter 12th January 2024 The City of Cape Town says it wants a “clear deadline” from Transnet and national government on private sector involvement in the Port of Cape Town. With a private sector partner set to start operations at the Port of Durban in April, Cape Town Economic Growth MMC James Vos notes that “there is... →

The Port of Cape Town

Rival bidders question selection of proposed partner for Durban container terminal

By: Bloomberg 12th January 2024 South Africa’s selection of Filipino billionaire Enrique Razon’s harbour firm as a partner to revive sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest container port is being questioned by losing bidders. Companies that lost out to International Container Terminal Services Inc. for the right to buy almost half of the... →

Durban Container Terminal Pier 2's performance improving but ‘not out of the woods’

By: Darren Parker 11th January 2024 The Durban Container Terminal (DCT) Pier 2 has averaged single-digit vessels at anchor over the last two weeks, having earlier ensured that all priority cargo across the retail, automotive, energy and fast moving consumer goods sectors reached shelves at the required time. “We are not out of the... →

Preferred bidder selected to build and operate Richards Bay LNG terminal

By: Terence Creamer 10th January 2024 South Africa’s State-owned Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has announced that it has selected a public-private consortium as the preferred bidder to develop and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at the Port of Richards Bay’s South Dunes precinct. The Vopak & TPL Consortium... →

The Port of Richards Bay, which is currently a coal export hub, has been earmarked for gas infrastructure

TNPA to appoint panel to bridge ‘operational gaps’ at eight seaports

By: Marleny Arnoldi 10th January 2024 Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) is looking to appoint a panel of qualified service providers as terminal operators to step in and assist in closing “operational gaps” at its eight commercial seaports where terminal operator contracts have been suspended or terminated. The panel will... →

East London port

War, weather put ocean shippers on notice for rough seas in 2024

By: Reuters 7th January 2024 Recent hostilities in the Red Sea have thrown global shippers of vital goods for a loop - but it is hardly the only issue that big carriers are facing as 2024 kicks off. Giants like Maersk say the industry, which handles 90% of global trade, faces the possibility of significant disruptions, from... →

Shipping insurance for red sea transit soars after mounting attacks

By: Bloomberg 20th December 2023 The cost of insuring vessels that will transit the Red Sea jumped again this week after mounting attacks in the region forced some ships to avoid the vital waterway. Cover has now surged to about 0.5% of the value of a ship’s hull, according to three people involved in the market. That’s a sharp... →

Crumbling South African rail prompts Botswana to forge new route

By: Bloomberg 19th December 2023 Botswana has received unsolicited bids from investors to build a rail line to a Namibian port that will help avoid South Africa and its disintegrating logistics network. The 1 500 km Trans-Kalahari Railway project is gathering momentum as Transnet, the State rail and ports monopoly in Botswana’s... →

Coal shipments on Transnet freight-rail network have plunged to 30-year lows and iron-ore railings are at their lowest in a decade

Photo by Bloomberg
Coal shipments on Transnet freight-rail network have plunged to 30-year lows and iron-ore railings are at their lowest in a decade

South Africa aims to fire up economic growth with port, rail revival

By: Bloomberg 13th December 2023 South Africa’s government and the business community set a target of boosting the economic growth rate by as much as six percentage points by fixing the country’s collapsing ports and freight-rail network. They predict that cracking down on crime and corruption may save as much as 300 billion... →

PE Bulk Terminal completes yearly maintenance

By: Marleny Arnoldi 12th December 2023 Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) has successfully concluded the yearly ten-day maintenance shutdown of the Port Elizabeth Bulk Terminal to ensure the seamless handling of manganese for the next 12 months. This was a planned initiative carried out in agreement with customers during which bulk... →

Cape Town Container Terminal receives seven additional gantry cranes

By: Schalk Burger 12th December 2023 The Cape Town Container Terminal (CTCT) took delivery of seven pre-used rubber-tyred gantry cranes (RTGs) on December 11. The acquisition of the RTGs is part of State-owned Transnet Port Terminals’ (TPT's) turnaround plan, the key priorities of which include ensuring equipment availability to... →

Seven RTGs being delivered to the Cape Town Container Terminal

Transnet issues South Dunes liquid bulk and green fuels terminal RFP

By: Schalk Burger 11th December 2023 The State-owned Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the appointment of suitable terminal operator to fund, design, develop, operate, maintain and transfer the liquid bulk and/or green fuel terminals for a concession period of 25 years. The RFP is... →

Passage of NHI Bill would spell disaster for the health sector – BLSA

By: Darren Parker 11th December 2023 Business Leadership South Africa CEO Busi Mavuso has warned of the deteriorating health sector without the prospect of recovery, owing in large part to the passage last week of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill into law, barring the assent of President Cyril Ramaphosa. In her weekly... →

TNPA increases tug availability at the Port of Durban

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 8th December 2023 The Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has increased the number of tugs available to an average of six. The increased tug availability is set to complement the recently announced 24-hour helicopter service, ensuring a quicker turnaround of vessels at the port and allowing terminal operators... →

An image showing tugs at the Port of Durban

There is now increased tug availability at the Port of Durban

Transnet expects 175 vessel calls as cruise liner season opens

By: Irma Venter 8th December 2023 Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) says it expects 175 vessel calls at South African port cities in the 2023/24 cruise liner season, which opened earlier this month. The vessels are expected to bring an estimated 166 933 passengers to local shores. →

Spares deal expected to boost performance of straddle carriers at congested DCT Pier 2

By: Terence Creamer 7th December 2023 Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) has concluded a seven-year agreement with four original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for the supply of critical spares for equipment across its terminals, including the Durban Container Terminal (DCT) Pier 2, which is the State-owned company’s largest and most... →

A straddle carrier

Greater govt support for multimodal efficiencies needed, experts agree

By: Marleny Arnoldi 5th December 2023 The cost of logistics in South Africa has increased significantly in the last eight years to about R800-billion a year at present and accounting for half of all products’ inherent costs. This while the country’s logistics ability is declining. →

Road Freight Association CEO Gavin Kelly

TNPA seeks bidders for big berth expansion at congested Durban terminal

By: Terence Creamer 4th December 2023 The Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has issued a tender for the reconstruction, deepening and lengthening of three berths at the Pier 2 North Quay of the currently congested Durban Container Terminal (DCT), in KwaZulu-Natal. The five-year project, which is scheduled to start in 2024,... →

Photo by TNPA
The Durban Container Terminal

TNPA bolsters interventions at Port of Durban to expedite recovery

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 1st December 2023 Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) is assisting terminal operators with implementing the container recovery plan more easily at the Port of Durban by providing a 24-hour helicopter services and ramped-up dredging services. The intervention will be implemented from December 2. →

Port of Durban

Sasol appoints adviser to search for Boegoebaai hydrogen export hub coinvestors

By: Terence Creamer 1st December 2023 A financial adviser has been appointed to assist Sasol in a search for potential coinvestors into a green hydrogen and ammonia export hub at Boegoebaai, in the Northern Cape, following the completion of a prefeasibility study into the site’s potential. The study, which was initiated in 2021,... →

Treasury says equity injection can be averted as it unveils R47bn Transnet guarantee

By: Terence Creamer 1st December 2023 A R47-billion guarantee facility, effective immediately, has been extended to struggling State-owned freight logistics group Transnet in support of its recovery plan and to meet its immediate debt obligations. The guarantee was announced following concurrence between Finance Minister Enoch... →

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana

Durban Container Terminal increases working hours to clear backlog, amongst other measures

By: Darren Parker 30th November 2023 The Durban Container Terminal (DCT) Pier 2 has increased the ship working hours at some of its berths over the last few days to clear the backlog of vessels at anchor, Durban Terminals has revealed. Over three consecutive days, berth 204 of the Transnet Port Terminals- (TPT-) operated port... →

Durban Container Terminal landside operations

DP World urges change to cold chain temperature to -15 °C to reduce emissions

By: Schalk Burger 30th November 2023 Logistics company DP World has set up an industry-wide coalition to explore the feasibility of changing the temperature that frozen food is transported and stored at from -18 °C to -15 °C, named Join the Move to -15 °C, which would lead to cost savings of between 5% and 12%. Most frozen food is... →

NUM Highveld region to march against Transnet over debilitating logistics failures

By: Schalk Burger 30th November 2023 Trade union the National Union of Mineworkers' (NUM's) Highveld Region is planning to march to the offices of the Presidency and the Department of Public Enterprises on December 9 to demand an immediate intervention on State-owned Transnet’s failure to transport minerals to and from the country’s... →

Gore warns of ‘plateauing’ pace of delivery on power, logistics, crime reforms

By: Terence Creamer 29th November 2023 Business Unity South Africa (Busa) president Adrian Gore has warned that the pace of delivery across the joint initiatives being taken with government on electricity, logistics and crime is “plateauing” and has called for a greater sense of “urgency and determination” to re-establish momentum. In... →

Photo by Creamer Media's Donna Slater
Busa president and Discovery CEO Adrian Gore

Cape Town container terminal clears most of vessel backlog

By: Schalk Burger 29th November 2023 The Cape Town Container Terminal (CTCT) has cleared most of its backlog, berthing vessels on arrival with only one vessel at anchor, State-owned Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) reports. The terminal has increased equipment availability to optimise operations and improve efficiencies, it adds. →

The Port of Cape Town

100 000 containers now stuck outside three SA ports - as new penalties and price hikes loom

By: News24Wire 29th November 2023 In recent weeks, container ships have been bypassing the congested and delay-ridden Cape Town harbour to berth at the Port of Port Elizabeth in Gqeberha and the Ngqura (Coega) port, reports the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF). But the influx of vessels has created massive... →

RFA, SAAFF, Hume reiterate concern about South Africa’s logistics performance

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 28th November 2023 Representative organisation the Road Freight Association (RFA) emphasises that the deterioration of South Africa’s ports and rail has been a slow, continued process over at least ten years, and that management of State-owned entity (SOE) Transnet and its subsidiaries have been fully aware of the... →

Road Freight Association CEO Gavin Kelly

South Africa seeks re-election to council of global shipping regulator

By: Rebecca Campbell 28th November 2023 The Department of Transport (DoT) has announced that it has launched a campaign to get South Africa re-elected to the Council of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), for the period 2023-2024. The IMO is the specialised United Nations agency responsible for regulating shipping and... →

Loadshedding and port congestion make headlines

24th November 2023 Creamer Media editor Terence Creamer discusses the lagging procurement of new electricity generation and addition of crucial grid infrastructure, as well as the dire situation at Transnet's ports and rail systems. →

Loadshedding and port congestion make headlines

Ramaphosa talks tough over Transnet incompetence as ports nightmare rages on

By: News24Wire 24th November 2023 President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed that Transnet would shed itself of incompetence and address the major backlogs at the country's ports. If not, it could see the economy continue to bleed. On Thursday, the president visited the port of Richards Bay after Transnet said it was considering blocking... →

President Cyril Ramaphosa

Stefanutti named preferred bidder for East London port N-berth deepening, strengthening project

By: Creamer Media Reporter 22nd November 2023 The Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has chosen multidisciplinary construction group Stefanutti Stocks as the preferred bidder for work package one of the Port of East London’s N-berth deepening and strengthening project. N-berth is located on the West Quay of the port, which also... →

The Port of East London

SAAFF warns of rising port-congestion costs

By: Terence Creamer 22nd November 2023 The South African Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF) estimates that the current congestion at South Africa’s ports is costing at least R124-million a day in direct and indirect costs. With 96 vessels waiting at anchorage outside the country’s commercial ports, CEO Juanita Maree estimates... →

South African Association of Freight Forwarders CEO Juanita Maree

No ‘overnight’ solution to vessel congestion at Durban container terminal

By: Terence Creamer 20th November 2023 The prevailing backlog of ships at anchorage outside the country’s largest container terminal is currently forecast to be cleared only by the end of February amid persistent equipment shortages and insufficient maintenance. However, Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) reports that it is working on... →

The Durban Container Terminal

TNPA issues Eol for small, medium-scale LNG imports

By: Irma Venter 17th November 2023 Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has published an expression of interest (EoI) document to determine market appetite for small- to medium-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports through the ports of Durban, Cape Town, East London, Saldanha Bay and Mossel Bay. The EoI seeks to explore... →

Moody’s places Transnet on review for ratings downgrade

By: News24Wire 14th November 2023 Moody’s Investors Service has placed Transnet on review for a potential credit ratings downgrade due to concerns over liquidity and refinancing risks for the struggling state-owned freight, port and logistics group. "Moody's views weakened liquidity as a governance-related risk. After the... →

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