The storms off the coast of South Africa led to a bulker vessel, the Ultra Galaxy, losing her entire load of fertilizer, running aground and breaking apart, causing a large oil and marine fuel spill over a kilometre of remote Atlantic coastal area a month ago. Two weeks later the CMA CGA Belem on its way between China and Brazil lost its containers at sea off the Indian Ocean coast. She is currently taking up one of the two berths at Ngqura Container Terminal, limiting the loading capacity for citrus.
The Eastern Cape’s citrus packing is tapering off with lemons and oranges rapidly drying up. It is a quick end, similar to last year exporters say, probably ending by early and mid-September.
Swells of up to eight metres in Algoa Bay earlier this week kept the ports of Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) and Ngqura closed for most of the week, today re-opening, although a resumption of strong wind is expected from tonight until next week, which might affect loading again, notes Mitchell Brooke, logistics development manager at the Citrus Growers’ Association.
The Ngqura Container Terminal
Depot plugin points keep cold stores moving
“Those who could, put in plug points over the last three years and there’s a thousand plugin points at the depots,” says an exporter who asks to remain unnamed. He says a large group of cold store owners and some shipping lines realised the need for more off-port facilities, the wisdom of which was amply illustrated this season.
“When the two ports were closed and couldn’t take in any more containers, Eastern Cape cold stores were able to keep on moving and everyone was able to plug in their containers at depots. If we didn’t have these thousand plugin points that would’ve been another 20,000 pallets which is more than the combined Eastern Cape capacity. Without it, it would’ve been a disaster in the Eastern Cape and it’s working so well.”
He continues: “A lot of the roleplayers at the cold stores put in money and capacity so that you can load by day and when the queues get too long, you can run those containers in to port at night. If we are going to be more efficient, we need to utilize the gates 24 hours a day.”
For more information:
Transnet Ngqura Container Terminal
https://www.transnetportterminals.net/Ports/Pages/Ngqura_Container.aspx
Transnet Port Elizabeth Terminal
https://www.transnetportterminals.net/Ports/Pages/PortElizabeth_Multi.aspx
freshplaza.com
www.freshplaza.com
