Lienette Goosen
10 July 2009
Windhoek — New container handling equipment worth N$450 million will boost the competitiveness of Namibia's main port. This equipment forms part of the planned N$1.7 billion strategic expansion project for the Walvis Bay Container terminal area, which is set to be commissioned in 2012.
Elzevir Gelderbloem, Namport project manager for the expansion project, says the new container handling equipment and quay cranes are of utmost importance to bring the port in line with other larger ports in the SADC region, as well as to create a competitive advantage.
"The new equipment is the latest in modern container handling equipment all around the world and will include Rubber Tired Gantry Cranes (RTGs) for stacking containers in the terminal yard as well as Ship-to-Shore quay cranes (STSs) for loading and unloading containers to and from ships," he says.
"The new RTGs will be able to stack containers in blocks of 6 container rows wide by 5 containers high while requiring minimal space for itself to manoeuvre around the stacked containers. This will be a huge (50%) improvement in the amount of space taken up by roadways and manoeuvring space as with the current container handling equipment such as reach stackers."
Other equipment in which the port is investing are the new STS cranes. Standing 80m tall with their boom raised and with a total weight of 1000 tonnes, these cranes can easily become new landmarks on the skyline of Walvis Bay.
"We will import the cranes from international suppliers and it will be shipped to our port in two or even three parts. At the moment we can offload containers at an average speed of 20 containers per hour per crane. The new cranes will be able to offload at a rate of 40 containers per hour per crane," Gelderbloem says
"The expansion of the container terminal allows for bigger ships to enter the port. The existing container terminal will not be able to accommodate the huge volumes leading to a decrease in cost effectiveness. However, the new container terminal facility with its new modern equipment will ensure quick and efficient turnaround times for these bigger vessels which can carry up to 8000 containers in total," he adds.
All container-handling equipment such as the new cranes will be fitted with the latest in computer technology. The container terminal operating system will also streamline Namport's operations and thus contribute to an increased efficiency and productivity.
"We are now embarking on our first trial runs with this new container terminal operating system in our existing terminal and this same system will then just be extended to the new container terminal once completed," says Gelderbloem.
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