CAPE TOWN: South Africa’s national ports authority hinted planned investment in port projects could be slowed as a result of the current lackluster economic climate owing to the low price of oil. Transnet National Port Authority, or TNPA, said it remained committed to advancing the country’s key projects but needed to ensure its expectations were properly aligned with those of investors in the current market context.
“We remain committed to advancing these projects but will continue to realign our expectations with the expectations of investors in order to come up with collaborative solutions that are matched with market risk,” said Ricky Bhikraj, executive manager for capacity and enablement at the port authority. Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and the Port of Ngqura are South Africa’s container gateways. The biggest container project in the pipeline is at Durban, where a new port and container terminal facilities are to be built in two phases. New container facilities are also to be constructed at Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.
The container ports handled a combined national total of around 5 million 20-foot-equivalent units in 2015, a figure forecast to grow to 6.4 million TEUs by 2022 and 13.9 million TEUs by 2046. “The global economic slowdown and lower oil price has had implications for new facilities being built by TNPA under the government’s Operation Phakisa initiative,” Bhikraj said.
Operation Phakisa is a government program centered on growing the economy through investment in the marine transport and manufacturing sectors. The program includes new capacity creation projects at the three major ports of Saldanha, Richards Bay, and East London. Capacity at Saldanha will service the offshore oil and gas industry. Intended to be South Africa’s first offshore supply base, a developer for the project is to be appointed as planned by the end of the year, TNPA said in a statement.
New ship repair facilities focused on the oil and gas sector are to be developed at Richards Bay, while East London is to be the site of a new boat building industry with a focus on the construction of tug boats and navy vessels. The ports of Durban, Port Elizabeth, Mossel Bay and Cape Town are currently undergoing refurbishment and upgrading of ship repair facilities.
The TNPA statement said all of the projects would be fully operational by December of 2019. Capacity demand at South Africa’s nine major ports is expected to reach 314 million tons per annum by 2022, up from 25 in 2015. That figure is expected to rise to 543 million by 2046, with particularly strong growth in demand for containerized and liquid bulk cargoes in the coming three decades, TNPA forecasts show.
