Durban Digs Deep to Lure Large Container Ships From Suez Canal

By Derek Alberts

(Bloomberg) — The South African port of Durban has began an excavation challenge to triple its capability to deal with giant container ships, encouraging extra vessels to sail across the Cape of Good Hope, quite than use the Suez Canal.

Global maritime visitors is more and more dominated by giant vessels that must be serviced at specialised deep ports, Mark Gregg-MacDonald, an government at state transport firm Transnet SOC Ltd., advised reporters in Durban on Friday. The metropolis is South Africa’s third-largest and has its busiest harbor.

“It’s more cost effective to sail modern, large container vessels around the Cape than through the Suez Canal,” Gregg- MacDonald mentioned.

Work on the challenge, generally known as dig out port in Durban, began in 2012 and the primary section is because of be accomplished by 2025. Project Director Marc Descoins mentioned it should take the port’s capability to 9.5 million twenty-foot equal items in 2040, from 2.7 million final yr.

The port enlargement will contribute no less than 16.5 billion rand ($1.4 billion) to the South African economic system, Gregg- MacDonald mentioned.

“More than 70 percent of all container ships currently being built are larger than 8,000 TEUs, a far cry from five, 10 years ago,” Gregg-MacDonald mentioned.

Descoins declined to provide an estimate for the price of the challenge, saying unexpected occasions and potential delays make forecasts “a lottery.” Spending to date had reached about 150 million rand, he mentioned.