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MARCH 2011 FREIGHT & TRADING WEEKLY
WEsTERN CApE
AAT’s sias van der Westhuizen
Competing with Asiaand WINNING
Blown away...why Cape Town is losing
out to other ports
Winging it –perishables flying high
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March 2011 Western Cape 1
www.ftwonline.co.zaCONTENTS
Cover: Sias van der Westhuizen, AAT Composites – page 2.
Editor Joy OrlekConsulting Editor Alan PeatAssistant Editor Liesl Venter Advertising Carmel Levinrad (Manager)
Yolande Langenhoven Gwen Spangenberg Jodi Haigh Division Head Anton MarshManaging Editor David Marsh
CorrespondentsDurban Terry Hutson
Tel: (031) 466 1683Cape Town Ray Smuts
Tel: (021) 434 1636Port Elizabeth Ed Richardson
Tel: (041) 582 3750Swaziland James Hall
Advertising Co-ordinators Tracie Barnett, Paula SnellLayout & design Lindy FobianCirculation [email protected] by JUKA Printing (Pty) Ltd
Annual subscriptionsCombined Print & Internet - (SA only) R498.00
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Illovo, Johannesburg. PO Box 55251, Northlands,
2116, South Africa.
Shipper profile
Flying high in the face of strong competition from Asia ....... 2
Airfreight
Perishables hold up in difficult airfreight market .................. 6
Seafreight
Cape Town losing business to other ports .............................. 4
Extra capacity to West Africa ............................................... 10
CT rethinks depth requirements ........................................... 12
Logistics
Groupage operator focuses on imports .................................. 2
Airfreight growth in focus ..................................................... 6
New depot adds wine to its portfolio ..................................... 8
Paarl warehouse moves off national electricity grid ............ 10
Intraspeed anticipates major developments ......................... 12
Electronic solutions
Training courses streamed to Cape Town office .................... 4
Software system streamlines border delays ........................... 8
Container yard management made easy ................................ 8
On-site, same-day problem solving a key benefit ................ 10
Page 4
Page 6
Page 8
Page 10
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2 Western Cape March 2011
Lucrative niche market targets world’s leading airlines
Flying high in the face of strong competition from AsiaBy Ray Smuts
As the battle for global airline supremacy intensifies, the Western Cape’s AAT Composites is flying high, having carved
an export niche market for itself by designing and manufacturing seat components for first and business class cabins of some of the world’s leading airlines.
The overall winner of the 2010 Absa/Cape Chamber of Commerce Exporter of the Year Award, it is the second top achiever recognised from the Helderberg region, following the 2006 win by The Invisible Card Company.
Formed by a group of engineers some 25 years ago and at one time turning out components for defence forces around the world – South Africa included – AAT Composites, under CEO Sias van der Westhuizen, has only been operational in its present guise for about six years.
Composite product manufactured is either carbon fibre or fibreglass, specifically the seat side arms and cabin dividers, and the company has just begun manufacturing rear walls for toilets to fit the curvature of the aircraft.
“The airline industry is growing in leaps and bounds and we want to increase our share of the business all the time,” says Willem Kleinschmidt, account manager for the R100+million-a-year company.
AAT is majority-owned by the German
Recaro Aircraft Seating company, part of the group which includes Recaro Automotive, manufacturer of seats for sports and racing cars.
It is one of four major aircraft seat manufacturers in the world, aside from Zodiac, BE Aerospace and Contour Aircraft Seating, turning out between 7 000 and 10 000 components a year.
Kleinschmidt explains airlines only buy the empty shell from the likes of Airbus and Boeing and specify interior design when passing orders onto seat manufacturers, who build and install in first and business class cabins – mostly Airbus A-320, Airbus A-340, Boeing 777 and 767 aircraft.
While this forms the major portion of AAT’s business, it also manufactures certain components for economy class seats, including seat pads, arm and backrests, which add R30-odd million to annual revenues.
The majority of economy class seat frames are produced in Asia, thus making it difficult to compete in this price-sensitive market.
The company’s customers include Lufthansa, Emirates, BA, Swiss, Air France and Air Canada, ironically not SAA, for which the reasons are sound.
When the airline approached AAT through Zodiac about four years ago to manufacture components for its Airbus A-340s, it was unable to oblige due to a prior Lufthansa order.
Commissioned by Contour Seating, the company has also manufactured some 500 components for the business class section of the yet-to-be-commercially-launched Boeing Dreamliner.
The company was also involved in manufacturing carbon fibre bucket seats for a new generation of Zeppelin airships.
With a full-time staff complement of about 400, including a good number of engineers, AAT operates a 4 000 sq m main factory in the industrial area of the Strand, near Cape Town, and acquired a second plant in the area last year.
Entirely export-driven to Europe and the US, AAT uses GAC Laser in Cape Town for all its air and seafreight requirements.
CEO Sias van der Westhuizen makes the point that airline demand for quality is high for these strong, light, carbon fibre products, favoured where larger, more spacious fittings are required.
SHIPPER PROFILE
Willem Kleinschmidt ... ‘We want to increase our share of the business all the time.’
By Alan Peat
The latest focus at CFR Freight airfreight division is to concentrate on imports, according to Cape Town-based airfreight manager, Karen Schoeman.
“Our main source for imports,” she added, “is from China – which is proving a bustling market for SA.”
To help promote this sector of the business, CFR has just had its agent out from China which proved to be a very successful exercise. “All our clients appreciated the professional and informative feedback that we were able to give them.”
In order to boost Chinese imports, the company has organised block space agreements with KLM, Emirates and Thai Airways.
“We had noted that our freight forwarding clients were struggling to get space out of China,” Schoeman added. “We therefore
decided to introduce these block bookings all year round so that when the busy peak season comes about, we have space to offer for cargo consignments.”
The company also has a viable product for imports out of Europe. In this case it has linked up with the Netherlands-based operation of its global partner, the Air Cargo Group, and has all of its imports from Europe slotted out through the Dutch hub airport at Schiphol, Amsterdam.
“Also,” Schoeman told FTW, “we have a well-established product for imports from the US, with regular consolidations out of the country.”
Meantime, the Cape Town seafreight side of the business is also highly focused on imports from the Far East, again with a Chinese speciality, according to seafreight manager, Sean Menzies.
“That’s where the business is,” he said.
Unfortunately for its clients in the Western Cape forwarding industry, it’s almost impossible to get shipments from the Far East sailing directly into the port of Cape Town.
“So we are busy developing transhipment options to get the import consignments from China direct to the Western Cape,” Menzies told FTW.
“To do this, we have been organising transit ports along this trade – with cargo transhipment at Singapore, Durban or other convenient hub ports along the route.
“Also,” said Menzies, “we have identified that Cape Town is 50% up on exports into Africa – mainly West Africa.
“What we have done to accommodate this demand from freight forwarders is to develop less than container load (LCL) export products around it. We have not only created these products for forwarders, but also consolidate their consignments on their behalf.”
Groupage operator focuses on imports
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4 Western Cape March 2011
Lines divert vessels as wind-related delays escalate
By Ray Smuts
The Transnet maxim that the country’s seven commercial ports should
not compete but rather be complementary to each other is unwittingly becoming a thorn in the heel of the Port of Cape Town.
In January last year NPA Mother City port manager Sanjay Govan conceded shipping lines were becoming increasingly concerned at the high cost of wind-related hold-ups and he believes it’s possible the lines may divert cargo to other ports in future if some relief cannot be found.
Those words had a clairvoyant ring to them because his fears are being realised. This year’s winds are some of the worst yet experienced and have resulted in more ships by-passing Cape Town to discharge city-destined cargo in other ports.
“The wind is starting to affect us big time and I am seriously concerned about Cape Town, given our data reflects wind increasing year by year and blowing for longer periods,” he said.
“It used to blow at between 80km/h and 120km/h, now it
is blowing between 120km/h and 140km/h, with gusts up to 160km/h, so this is a new phenomenon.”
Referring to vessel bypasses, he says: “It’s happening, MSC diverting to Coega, for instance. They have taken it so far and I expect it won’t be long before the other shipping lines follow suit as cutting and running is far too costly.”
Another setback is that transhipments once effected in Cape Town have moved mostly to the Port of Ngqura.
The NPA has yet to confirm the total number of wind hours thus far but Cape Town research manager, Zurayda Christians, says December 2010 was the worst month on record, followed by May 2010, January 2011, and March 2010.
It is a given that September to March are the worst for wind, earlier calculations suggesting container terminal wind delays of 45 and 145 hours a month over this six-month period.
To its credit, Transnet Port Terminals has taken proactive measures in preparation for the Big Blow, including a complex mix of flexible shift patterns and a review of container stacking capacity, including assessing available equipment
with the emphasis on retaining flexible machinery.
Another vital element to the plan is engaging with customers to better plan vessels, particularly the manner in which they are loaded, and encourage higher productivity.
Despite criticism about whether TPT’s new fleet of 29 RTGs is up to coping with Cape Town’s wind conditions, most will admit there is little more it can do to improve matters.
Govan says the wind dilemma has reminded him of the CSIR commission to conduct a wind study of Cape Town Container Terminal, which focused on the possibility of a ‘wind wall’.
A giant structural frame with
‘shelving’, it is loaded with containers which act as a break against wind. The concept has been implemented at several overseas ports.
Transnet terminated the study, apparently because of doubt whether costs could be justified.
“I was thinking about the wind wall while the wind was blowing and maybe there could be a benefit in going back to that kind of thinking.”
As if the recent floods in the Northern Cape, which caused extensive damage to the grape sector, are not devastating enough for the province’s exports, the Western Cape has been warned to brace itself for severe storms in June and July.
Cape Town losing business to other ports
Seen against a recent aerial photograph backdrop of the Port of Cape Town are Jos Willemse, NPA key account manager, Zurayda Christians, research manager, and Sanjay Govan, port manager. The new container terminal cranes can be seen directly behind Govan.
The freight system specialist, Compu-Clearing, is critically aware of the importance that the Western Cape holds for the clearing and forwarding industry in SA, according to sales and marketing manager, Nachi Mendelow.
“Recognising this, we have maintained a physical office at the Airport Industria in Cape Town, for the past three years,” he told FTW. “This is linked by both voice and video to the Johannesburg training rooms – and the monthly training courses on all the Compu-Clearing systems are streamed live and direct to our office.”
This allows the company to effectively
offer monthly live training on all Compu-Clearing modules at its Cape Town base.
“Additionally,” said Mendelow, “we have entered into an agreement with training house, SDS, allowing it to make use of our premises to host its training courses.”
Also, now that submitting manual entries is no more, and replaced by electronic data interchange (EDI) clearance through customs, Compu-Clearing has been helping out agents in Saldanha on how to submit these entries electronically.
“We have already enjoyed notable success assisting these agents to move to this electronically submission,” said Mendelow.
“Our representatives in Cape Town, have helped and guided these customers throughout the process to ensure that their installations were successful.
“Not only did they provide training, hand-holding and support, they have also assisted clients to obtain and complete all the documents required by customs.”
Compu-Clearing’s successful move into the EDI process has led the company to eagerly await the roll-out of the Customs Modernisation Stage 2.
As part of its expansion plans in Cape Town, Compu-Clearing intends to soon add a marketing person to the staff complement.
Training courses streamed to CT office
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6 Western Cape March 2011
By Alan Peat
In the aftermath of the worldwide recession and the strong rand, it has not been a good time for airfreight exports, according to
Martin Upton, Western Cape area sales manager for the SAA cargo division.
“The market in Cape Town hasn’t grown in the last six months or so,” he told FTW. “It’s very much an agricultural market, and seasonal, and the strong rand has been badly affecting these perishable shippers.
“Also, a lot of the fruit which is normally an airfreight product, has been using seafreight instead.”
But there is still a big perishable airfreight market in the Western Cape.
“The typical products are the stone fruit and grapes in the summer for Europe,” said Upton. “There is also a lot of fish for Europe.
“Added to that is a lot of seafood, especially lobsters, for the Far East.”
It also does a big business in auto parts for Europe.
However, SAA has also noted that the textile airfreight market is now a bit of a no-no.
“The textile industry has really scaled
down in recent times,” Upton added. “We used to be heavily into clothing transport, but it has died down to a large degree.”
But SAA is looking strongly at new destinations into Africa, and sees it as an encouraging new means of utilising its freighter fleet of three Boeing 737(F) aircraft.
“Africa is a growth market,” said Upton, “and an obvious focus for our cargo section.”
Although SAA still operates a direct daily service between Cape Town and London, it no longer has any other direct flights to foreign destinations. But the airline is looking at instituting services direct to Beijing in China before year-end, according to Upton.
While it’s flying out of Johannesburg,” he said, “it will still give the Cape a useful connection via OR Tambo International Airport to a major new marketplace for SA traders.”
The airline has also just got the eco-efficiency of a new aircraft model joining its fleet, according to Upton, with SAA having become the latest operator of the Airbus A330 family.
It has just taken delivery of an A330-200 – the first of six to be leased to the
national carrier – and the aircraft will be used primarily on long-haul routes from the airline’s bases in Cape Town and Johannesburg, he said.
“The new A330 will join our existing Airbus fleet of 11 A319s, 14 A340-200/300s and nine A340-600s.”
Perishables fly high in difficult airfreight market
Martin Upton ... ‘Africa is a growth market.’
By Ray Smuts
Work is no daily grind for Shawn Simonhoff, he’s actually having fun, and lots of it, as Cape regional director of Ehrenreich Logistics.
Ehrenreich Logistics, fledgling but growing, believes small is not necessarily bad. It rather affords advantages such as greater customer interaction and more personalised attention.
As CEO Peter Ehrenreich himself states: “We are not going after specific markets but rather pursuing clients we believe we can service well and add value.”
Offering and maintaining service more often than not stems from sound experience
and the three company directors are hardly lacking in that regard – a collective 70-odd years in shipping between them.
Founder and CEO, Peter Ehrenreich, is an AP Moller-Maersk veteran who has amassed a treasure trove of global connections over the years.
Simonhoff is himself no slouch in terms of shipping and freight experience – MSC, Maersk Line, Kuehne and Nagel, Grindrod and Seatram among them, while Nadia Govender (director in Gauteng) worked at Maersk Line, Maersk Logistics, Safmarine and UTi.
Simonhoff expects the South African economy to remain ‘stable’ for 2011, in line with the assessment by ratings
agency Fitch.The company’s Cape Town
branch at Epping Industria 2 has only been open since September 2009, starting out with two people and two computers, but Simonhoff is well satisfied with customer growth to around 40 and hopes to increase revenue 200% by the end of this year.
The branch’s strength is exports, carrying such commodities as fruit, wine-related products and machinery to China, India, USA, Europe, the Middle East and West Africa. On the import side, it moves various commodities including necessities for the winemaking industry.
Simonhoff plans to focus more closely on the forwarding
sector and also growing airfreight volumes. One of the company’s strengths is its BBBEE rating at level 1.
Airfreight growth in focus for Ehrenreich Logistics
Shawn Simonhoff ... ‘Hoping to increase revenue 200% by the end of this year.’
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8 Western Cape March 2011
By Liesl Venter
Business in Cape Town is booming with much growth expected in the container industry, says CHC Container Depot’s Sayed Mohamad.
“We only opened our Cape Town branch in November last year after seeing a need for a new container depot player in the market,” said Mohamad. “Since then we have seen phenomenal growth and expect this to continue in 2011.”
So much so that CHC Container Depot has had to apply for special licensing to handle the wine trade coming its way. “We hope to soon have the necessary documentation in place so we can start packaging wine for exporting.”
He said much thought had gone into choosing the site for the company’s Cape Town branch.
“The site in Paarden Eiland
is strategically located close to the Cape Town Port and allows for a good logistics flow.”
Another asset to the property is the security system currently being installed, says Reshaan Laljith, CEO of CHC Resources.
The technically advanced system, similar to the systems used in the company’s Jo’burg and Durban branches, has been tailored to meet the company’s needs.
“The system is state of the art and allows us to have eyes on all parts of our business all the time.”
Warehouse activities can be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“We will have someone constantly watching all of our premises on the CCTV cameras. Security cannot be underestimated,” he says.
The company has also invested heavily in developing its own
information management system.
The personalised IT system will be used across the company at all its branches and addresses the specific needs of the container industry.
According to Laljith this system will allow CHC Container Depot to communicate with customers in a new and innovative way taking communications to the next level.
New depot adds wine to its portfolioState-of-the-art security system installed
By Liesl Venter
The customs modernisation programme has created many opportunities for greater efficiency when exporting
or importing, says Gregory Bruce, Cape Town-based representative of forwarding and clearing software service provider Core Freight Systems.
“We recently implemented the software for use in the processing of Sars documentation on behalf of a major fruit importer/exporter who was bringing grapes in from Namibia en route to Europe via South Africa,” he says. “We were advised that they were experiencing major delays at the border post because manual paper-based customs declarations were no longer acceptable. The
situation was further complicated by the introduction of the new Sars CPCs at the start of November 2010.”
They were referred to Core Freight in November last year. The situation was clarified with Sars and the necessary procedures instituted, says Bruce. “Within 10 days we were delighted to receive feedback from the client that the matter had been satisfactorily resolved, and that the shipments were rolling as required. In fact, the client reported that he had been contacted by a customs officer at the border post wanting to know how he had managed to get the transaction processed, as no other such shipments had been successfully cleared via EDI since the introduction of the new CPCs.”
According to Bruce there was appreciation
for both the functionality and supporting service available, which in turn allowed the importer/exporter to provide appropriate service levels to its customers.
Software system addresses border delaysPerishable shipper’s problem resolved in 10 days
Gregory Bruce … ‘Appreciation for the functionality and supporting service available.’
Reshaan Laljith ... ‘Security cannot be underestimated.’
By Alan Peat
Although the stacking, storing and handling of containers in a container yard sounds like a simple process, there’s a surprising amount of information that has to be recorded accurately, altered when necessary and transferred when required.
According to the suppliers, this is where a system like the Macro 2000 Container Yard Management Software comes into play. It is an operational management system that automatically takes care of the invoicing.
In practical terms, containers are received into the yard, relocated as specific containers are required then reserved and dispatched for specific clients.
But there is that large amount of information that is required throughout this process.
Needed on the record are: Container owner, client and dates of contract, size, type, ISO codes and various statuses and restrictions, damage (if any) recorded and repaired, relocation, washing and inspection must be tracked and status and location known, and correct information known and relayed to client.
All this needs to be supported by radio frequency identification (RFID) and electronic data interchange (EDI) – and is where the Macro 2000 information system plays its role.
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10 Western Cape March 2011
The Western Cape’s agricultural and food and beverage industries have the potential to benefit significantly from a recently introduced weekly containerised service linking South Africa to West Africa and the Mediterranean.
Safmarine’s enhanced 225 service, which was introduced in February this year, sails from Cape Town directly to Dakar and Algeciras. “This not only provides a fast and reliable connection
to West Africa and the Med, but the service can also be used to connect reefer and dry cargo to the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and North and South America,” says Safmarine’s intra-Africa trade manager James Lewer.
The new service – which offers ample reefer capacity on all six vessels – got off to a strong start in February with a number of valuable bookings for cargo to both West Africa and the Med, he added.
Extra capacity to West Africa
By Joy Orlek
Four years since the opening of its Western Cape office, freight systems specialist Advanced Customs Solutions has seen business moving on an upward trajectory, says Cape Town-based member Bart van den Boom.
“Having a local office has proved beneficial for a variety of reasons,” says Van den Boom, “most important of which is the on-site same-day problem solving.”
Several refinements to the programme have been introduced over the past months, says Van den Boom. A recent upgrade that has drawn positive customer response is the accounting module which is now part of the ACS programme. “The user no longer has to recapture information or do dumps from third party accounting software, which adds to the reliability and user-friendliness of the programme.”
And that’s one of the aspects that finds favour with many clients based on their feedback, says Van den Boom.
“The explanatory notes are at their fingertips so they don’t need to know about imports and exports – the programme does it all for them. And there’s back-up support whenever they need it.”
The programme is available on a fixed monthly rental basis, regardless of the number of entries processed.
The ACS system caters for sea and air imports and exports, air and sea groupage as well as road freight and incorporates a fully integrated accounting module which runs from invoicing through to balance sheet.
Safmarine’s fleet director, Peter Porter, and Intra-Africa trade manager, James Lewer, ring the bell at the Safmarine head office in Antwerp to mark the ‘fixing’ of the six vessels for the new 225 service.
On-site, same-day problem solving a key benefit
By Alan Peat
As part of its ‘green’ philosophy, IMPERIAL Logistics is busy switching its national logistics hub, including a new office
building for 120 people, away from the national electricity grid.
When the company moves to its new site next to the main road between Paarl and Wellington, almost everything will run on electricity generated by the CES solar system on the warehouse roof.
Christo Theron, IMPERIAL Cargo Group MD, told FTW that he planned to complete the move to the new transport depot about mid-March.
Moving to industrial solar power buys IMPERIAL Cargo two things – all the IT on site runs on clean power without frequency shifts, voltage spikes and brownouts, and the company does not need a separate uninterruptible power supply (UPS) or a generator to keep IT and lights going in case of a power cut. The solar system can serve as a UPS for three days, even if there is no sunlight at all, or for five days with its normal solar input.
Whether it is cloudy or raining, the panels on the warehouse roof continue to generate electricity as there is still a portion of ultraviolet and infrared light coming through the clouds – maybe 20 or 30% of normal sunlight.
The technology used in these panels has the
ability to work when there is reduced radiation, all the way through to direct sunlight.
Office workers at IMPERIAL Cargo in Paarl will probably notice that the building does a few things by itself, even if the solar power feed to the computers is not visible.
Motion sensors tell the building where the people are, so lights get switched off in empty offices. If it happens to be a cold day and there is extra capacity on the solar system, says electrical engineer Glen Kwosniek, the building switches some air-conditioning from outside grid power to the solar system.
With solar, the logistics hub stays ahead of clients’ and government’s expectations to make logistics greener, he said.
Paarl warehouse moves off national electricity gridIT on site runs on clean power
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12 Western Cape March 2011
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By Ray Smuts
The Western Cape has time and again shown its mettle as one of the most dynamic growth
provinces, a fact Intraspeed South Africa is all too keenly aware of as it anticipates major developments in and around Cape Town for the year ahead.
“Cape Town is currently the fastest growing city in South Africa and the centre for energy development and fresh produce,” says Paul Thomas, the company’s Montague Gardens-based branch manager for Cape Town.
The Provincial Economic Review and Outlook for 2011 predicts the Western Cape economy will grow 3.2% this year, slightly below the 3.4% forecast for the country as a whole.
The province has a lot going for it in many ways, that much realised by many domestic and international companies in choosing to base their headquarters here.
That thinking will no doubt be fuelled by future investment initiatives, with proactive companies like Intraspeed running with the ball following president Zuma’s recent State of the Nation address declaring that government has allocated R20 billion in tax breaks to encourage new projects.
An international freight forwarding company offering all aspects of international and domestic freight forwarding and operating from Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, Intraspeed has over the years become a major player in Africa, with intimate knowledge of cargo movement to and from the continent.
This has enabled it to provide end-to-end solutions on a continent embracing 53 nations – the newest (54th), Southern Sudan with its oil-rich reserves, to emerge mid-year.
Intraspeed has been active in South Africa for eleven years but offers much greater experience in other parts of the continent – 20 years in fact – and has opened new offices in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
Its airfreight export service offers daily scheduled flights to most destinations, charter flights also if required, while its seafreight export division offers weekly services to most direct ports of call.
It also offers LCL and FCL trucking/rail services to all neighbouring states and a wide variety of other services such as project management, warehousing and customs clearance.
Intraspeed anticipates major developments for year ahead
By Ray Smuts
The sudden appearance, in some instances re-appearance, of dredgers in the ports of Cape Town, Durban and Richards Bay would seem to point to Transnet’s initial under-estimation of the need for deeper ports to allow for the changing face of shipping.
This became apparent in conversation with Sanjay Govan, the NPA’s port manager for Cape Town, as the Transnet-contracted, Belgian-operated dredger Palletier was about to start deepening operations in the port of Cape Town.
“When the master plans were designed for Cape Town, Durban and Ngqura five or six years ago, the thinking was not focused on huge depths,” says Govan.
“We now have to do that re-thinking with dredging to start in Durban and Cape Town.”
The Cape Town operation, expected to last for up to two months, involves deepening the entire channel to a depth of 15.5 metres.
Govan says when a start was made with design of the R5.5 billion Cape Town Container Terminal expansion project, the dredging depth of the basin was set at 15.5m, in line with what the shipping lines wanted.
“However, with the type
of vessels they are now starting to bring in, ships of over 8 000 TEUs, 15.5m is not deep enough, so given Cape Town is the first and last port of call by the lines, they are obviously having constraints.”
These would perhaps entail coming into port only 80% laden in order to make the draught and for the vessel to sail with a large amount of empties.
“The slight misunderstanding is that the determination of under keel clearance by shipping line marine specialists was far less than what our harbourmaster and pilots were putting down as a minimum, 1.3m, and the reason we are doing that is wind-related.
“Coming into Table Bay, a vessel’s movement is far greater than in other ports so your under keel clearance cannot be less than 1.3m.”
CT rethinks depth requirements
The dredging of the Port of Cape Town is expected to last for up to two months.
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