New container terminal frees up space in harbour
The Port of Walvis Bay is excited about the prospects of its multipurpose terminal.
Walvis Bay's new container terminal with a capacity of at least 750 000 TEUs per annum went online on 24 August and provides ample space for optimisation and expansion of the former facility. The commissioning of the New Container Terminal on reclaimed land freed up a considerable amount of space at the current container terminal with berths 1 to 8 now being utilised for multipurpose cargo vessels.
The port's regular cargo handling operations ceased between 17 and 23 August. More then 1 131 containers and ground-handling equipment were moved from the old container terminal to the new facility which added an additional 600m of quay wall length to the existing 1 800m.
This also enables conducting the rehabilitation of the existing quay walls with minimal disruption to operations.
Berth 9 is the new passenger liner berth with the two new berths being berth 10 and berth 11 at the new container terminal.
The project also increased the port’s bulk and break-bulk handling capacity considerably when the existing container terminal was turned into a multi-purpose terminal.
This allows for an increase in the trade of certain commodities such as salt, bulk sulphur, fertiliser imports with bagging plant, vehicles, fish and fish products.
Management of the bulk and break-bulk operations in the former container terminal have already been modernised. The Logstar General Cargo management system, which provides planning and real-time management functionality, was introduced at the old container terminal in January this year.
According to Namport executive for commercial services Immanuel Tino !Hanabeb, the idea of creating a car terminal for new vehicles is under consideration. He added that the port authority not not only offer clients a good customer experience but affordable prices also.
Namport can handle approximately 700 000 tons of general cargo on a monthly basis at the existing terminal.
The port has also seen an increase in project cargo, with the recent discharge of 6 600 tons of railway tracks, which is part of a consignment of 20 000 tons, as well as 10 720 tons of cargo for the construction of the Mohembo bridge in Botswana.
In addition to project cargo, the exportation of live animals also witnessed an increase as well. Another consignment of 202 live animals were shipped to the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday, 5 September.
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