By: Terence Creamer
6th September 2011

Freight logistics group Transnet confirmed on Tuesday that it had signed an agreement with the Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company (ZPMC), of China, for the supply of seven tandem lift ship-to-shore cranes for the Durban Container Terminal's underperforming Pier 2.

However, the State-owned utility refused to disclose a contract value for the "urgent" acquisition, which formed part of the group's larger R110.6-billion, five-year infrastructure investment programme for its rail, harbours and pipelines units.

The cranes would be manufactured in China and would be installed during the group 2012/13 financial year. But Transnet insisted that the agreement included a "significant localisation component", which included job creation, skills development and partnerships with local companies to produce crane spares domestically.

Transnet expected to invest some R5-billion at Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) operations over the period. Besides the new cranes, the group was also involved with projects to expand the capacity of the Cape Town Container Terminal from 700 000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year to 1.4-million TEUs.

CEO Brian Molefe indicated earlier that Pier 2 would be receiving special attention, owing to the fact that its aged facilities had left it unable to berth client vessels on arrival. This underperformance, he said, would be addressed through investment in state-of-the-art equipment and in further training.

TPT, which operates Pier 2, was only able to achieve an average of 23 moves per gross crane hour (GCH) during the financial year ended March 2011, owing to breakdowns in port equipment such as straddle carriers and cranes. By contrast, the modernised Pier 1 at Durban was achieving 29.5 GCH.
During the 2011 financial year, container volumes rose 12.5%, while its container handling rates also improved by 12.8%. Molefe said in June that its harbours had shown marked improvements, but that at Pier 2 Transnet had experienced heavy congestion.

"Pier 2 is giving the whole of Transnet a bad name," Molefe lamented.

The agreement with ZPMC, which followed on from a competitive bidding process, was for the design, manufacture, delivery and commissioning of the new cranes.

The tandem lift capability of the cranes would enable them to simultaneously handle two 12-m containers or four 6-m containers within a hoisting capability of 80 t.

Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter