Credit crunch:
& PROJECT FORWARDING
INTERNATIONAL
Credit crunch:
Riding out the storm
Canada: Energy driven
South Africa: Land of extremes
- Space race in the GCC - The ideal heavy lift ship? - Rail rolls back the borders
Issue: 5
November/December 2008
ANALYSISSOUTH AFRICA
Lovemore runs a dedicated Durban-Johannesburg service
South Africa:
land of extremes Project freight operators don’t know whether to reach for the champagne or the Prozac when they try to conduct their business in South Africa – the land of great commercial opportunity which sometimes has a strange tendency to descend spontaneously into a Third World Nightmare, reports Sharon Gill. ere is a land of extreme distances, extreme temperatures, extreme conditions – and some extremely infuriating accounts of sound business practice sometimes being trampled underfoot by bribery and corruption. South Africa covers an area of just over 1.2million sq km. On a single trip you can pass through modern cities, concentrated pockets of heavy industry, picture-postcard mountain villages, regions so barren and desolate that nobody could live there even if they wanted to, and remote locations for construction projects that have only just left the drawing board.
H
While an AN-124 can land at Durban airport with a 70 tonne load, it can only take off with a load of around 40 tonnes
Any route from A to B can include modern highways, potholed dirt roads, perilous mountain passes, or temporary roads built because there wasn’t one there. South Africa’s 2,798 km coastline includes some of the most treacherous shipping waters in the world. Off the east coast lies what is left of the cruise ship Oceanos, the containership Safmarine Agulhas and plenty more. The hostile west coast is littered with shipwrecks. Richards Bay is currently the main port in the country able to handle the larger out-ofgauge shipments, although the ports of Durban and Cape Town are being upgraded and do see abnormal loads. Construction on the new port of Ngqura in the Eastern Cape is on track. In terms of over-dimensional freight, the country’s rail system is not even an option. But South Africa is also of land of opportunity, particularly for the heavy lift industry, with current construction projects including the commercial scale power station at Koeberg near Cape Town, the new international airport at La Mercy near Durban, and the stadia and related
HEAVY LIFT & PFI November/December 2008
75
ANALYSISSOUTH AFRICA
Hauls the heavy, the unpredictable … and the secret Lovemore Bros transported a 15 tonne fibreglass structure from a manufacturing plant in Durban to Secunda for Sasol’s new Wet Sulphuric Acid Plant. The consignment was trucked to the port of Durban, loaded onto a barge, which was towed to Richards Bay, and then hauled by road to Secunda. According to company director Bruce Lovemore, the decision to use a barge instead of a ship was due to uncertainty about the manufacturing completion date and the consequent risk of having to book, cancel and re-book cargo space on a ship. The decision turned out to be a wise one. Lovemore also transported a solid gas-to-liquid processing plant from the fabrication workshop to the
infrastructure for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, to mention just three in a long list of major works. Furthermore, South Africa is one of the primary transhipment routes to Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and the only way in to Lesotho.
Red tape As in any country, South African heavy lift operators have their fair share of bureaucracy to contend with. The general height restriction for road freight is 4.3 m. Anything above that is an ‘abnormal load’ and you need an abnormal vehicle (AV) permit for each province you will be travelling through. For loads exceeding 125 tonnes, you need ‘superload’ clearance. South Africa is divided into nine provinces, namely Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West and the Western Cape. On a trip from Durban in Kwa ZuluNatal to Johannesburg in Gauteng, you will also pass through either the Free State or Mpumalanga. Depending on the dimensions or weight of the consignment, there are different routes to be followed: The A Route – for loads not exceeding 4.7 m in height. This is the N3, the busiest and most direct Durban-Johannesburg road, which includes the notorious Van Reenen’s Pass over the Drakensberg mountains that separate KZN from the Free State. The South African Road
Transporting a scrubber for Sasol from Durban to Secunda via Richards Bay Port of Durban, where it was loaded onboard a ship bound for Qatar. Due to the confidentiality of the
South Africa is also of land of opportunity with current construction projects including the commercial scale power station at Koeberg near Cape Town, the new international airport at La Mercy near Durban, and the stadia and related infrastructure for the 2010 FIFA World Cup
Federation (SARF) calls for the construction of a dedicated heavy vehicle road facility between Durban and Johannesburg – by far the most
equipment’s design, the consignment was concealed in a wooden crate.
important corridor in South Africa for the conveyance of general freight cargo. Currently more than 80 percent of freight is transported by road. This translates to 36million tonnes per annum being carried on the N3, and the volume is expected to double within 12 years, to 72million tonnes. The Mini B Route – for loads not exceeding 4.89 m in height. This heads south from Durban, then inland to meet up with the N3 just before Pietermaritzburg. The Full B Route – for loads exceeding 4.9 m in height. This bypasses Pietermaritzburg and joins the N3 just before Van Reenen. The ‘Super’ Route – for loads exceeding 85 tonnes in weight. This heads north from Durban on the N2 via Pongola to Ermelo (Mpumalanga), then joins the N17 through Bethal. This was originally built for Sasol as a freight route between Richards Bay and Secunda. For any load higher than 5.5 m, where overhead cables may need to be lifted by helicopter, clearance must be obtained from Eskom (the electricity supplier) and Telkom (the fixed-line telephone service provider), as well as all municipal and traffic departments along the route. Other restrictions applicable to abnormal vehicles include no travelling at night or on weekends or when there are visibility constraints. For out-of-gauge cargo, operators need to provide their own escorts, front and back. For bigger loads, and certainly anything wider than 4.8 m, they also need provincial traffic officer
HEAVY LIFT & PFI November/December 2008
77
ANALYSISSOUTH AFRICA
DIY detours If a load is too high to pass under a main road bridge, there are generally two options: crane it over or transfer the load to dollies and push it through. When Lovemore hauled 20 pieces of paper processing equipment from Durban to Sappi Saiccor on the KZN south coast, it went with a third option and built an on-and off-ramp to bypass a bridge on the main road.
Lovemore hauls digesters for Sappi Saiccor
This is not unusual in South Africa, where access roads for abnormal loads often do not exist. However, the party that builds these roads is responsible for them in terms of maintenance, public safety, etc. In Lovemore’s case, they simply dug up the detour when they had finished using it.
Brewery shipment Vanguard transported eight tanks from the fabrication plant in Johannesburg to Richards Bay harbour for loading on board a ship bound for Dar es Salaam. The 21m long tank is lowered into final position
escorts front and back, from start to finish. South Africa’s Technical Recommendations for Highways was, in the past, the TRH 11 Policy for the conveyance of abnormal loads and the industry complied with the regulations therein. A few years ago it became the TRH 11 Guidelines, which effectively allows administrations and authorities to make their own decisions.
Can of worms Our sources demanded anonymity for fear of repercussions in the form of delayed permits or vehicles being targeted at weighbridges and other checkpoints, but it seems that the permit system can be influenced by corrupt and illegal actions. “We are in a Third World country,” says one industry source, who flatly refuses to be named. “Bribery and corruption can decide whether a permit is granted or not.” In the past, if a permit was refused in terms of the TRH 11 policy, that was the end of it. One operator says he has submitted identical permit applications at the same time to two different people: one was granted, the other rejected. However, while delays may occur, for instance if the authorities call for a stability assessment, permits are rarely refused – although some should be, says yet another operator, adding that a permit will always be issued “for the right price”. “There are plenty of fly-by-night operators who do not bother with AV permits or who take a chance with the wrong vehicle for the wrong job, taking a shorter route and then getting their load stuck under a bridge,” he says. Meanwhile, traffic authority escorts are booked in advance. Operators are generally charged for two escorts but operators say that sometimes only one pitches up. Irrespective of the reason, whether the escort vehicle has been
called to another incident or has broken down, run out of petrol or exceeded its mileage limit for the month – the operator may be billed for two escorts. On the other hand, sometimes the escort does not pitch up on time and the operator is obliged to wait. A delay in one district will impact the transit window through the next and the next. All it needs is bad weather with low visibility, so that the load has to stop for a few hours, and there is a risk that by the time it reaches the final leg of the journey, the permit for that province will have expired.
Delays Permit applications are made according to information provided by the freight forwarder. There have been instances where the consignment is taken off the ship and loaded onto the AV, and only then does the transport operator find out that it is bigger or heavier than stated in the documents. Now he needs to ‘motivate’ someone to obtain an amendment to the permit If it is 4pm, nothing can be done until the next day. Which means that instead of hauling the consignment to the depot, the truck and its load spend the night in port, incurring the wrath of the port authorities and possibly penalties. Gerald Rudman, managing director of Truck Africa, points out that routing details are worked out well in advance. Eskom restricts the hours during which it will lift overhead lines and it also allows just one hour for the load to pass under the lifted line. Delays mean rescheduling line lifts and escorts. However, misinformation like this is not always deliberate. It could be that the base of the flat rack container was not taken into account when the dimensions of the consignment were calculated.
At 21 m long and 5.2 m in diameter, the tanks can each hold 260,000 litres of liquid. Wynand Boshoff, rigging and installation manager, says that Vanguard took custody of the tanks once they arrived at the brewery and successfully installed them despite the huge challenge of space limitations, which required a specially designed portal crane, which spanned the foundation and had a hook height of 25 m. Traffic authority escorts accompany a Lovemore convoy along the N2 north
78 November/December 2008 HEAVY LIFT & PFI
ANALYSISSOUTH AFRICA
SHIP AHOY: Vanguard used its imported Goldhofer trailer system to move the mv Ellen Khuzwayo from the shipbuilder’s warehouse to the synchrolift at the Cape Town Waterfront. Weighing approximately 600 tonnes, the vessel is 16.5 m high, 10.2 m wide and 43.2 m long. The vessel was constructed in cradles and mounted on pedestals to ensure a
Innovative thinking As proof that local authorities sometimes use their initiative, the KZN traffic department now allows the ‘heavies’ to operate outside normal working hours. This serves two purposes: the extended
smooth transition onto the trailers. Once the overhead crane and one of the warehouse walls were dismantled, the trailers were lowered and manoeuvred beneath the ship. Once in place, the trailer was jacked up and the move began. “As far as we know this is the heaviest item to be transported on a public road in South Africa,” says Vanguard’s managing director, Bryan Hodgkinson.
working hours help to reduce congestion on the port’s access roads and it is less disruptive to normal traffic if an AV travels at night. Despite the many issues facing project cargo and heavy lift shipping companies in the coun-
try, the domestic and foreign deep sea heavy lift shipping sector continues to work to provide the shipping capacity required to bolster the nation’s development. Canada-based Commonwealth Independent States Navigation recently established a
Cold box on the move Vanguard is taking a 140 tonne cold box on a 2,400 km journey from Walvis Bay harbour in Namibia to a copper mine in Chingola, Zambia. Vanguard project engineer, James Robinson, says that the port of Walvis Bay was selected over Richards Bay due to the logistical advantages it offers: a shorter distance overall, open roads with fewer built up areas and no escarpments to navigate.
The Vanguard convoy transports a 140 tonne cold box through Namibia
HEAVY LIFT & PFI November/December 2008
79
ANALYSISSOUTH AFRICA
direct, multipurpose service between North America (Montreal, Baltimore and Savannah) and southern Africa. Vice president Milena Dimitrova says the Canada States Africa Line (CSAL) service has launched successfully, carrying a wide range of freight including project cargo and other breakbulk items. The service has a monthly frequency, with a transit time of 22-32 days to Durban, depending on rotation. Freight coordination and operation of the service are managed by CSAL Montreal, while Canadian sales, marketing and operations are handled by Protos Shipping. In South Africa, CSAL calls at Richards Bay, Durban and Cape Town. Meanwhile, media reports indicate that AP Moller Maersk subsidiary Safmarine has placed an order for four 18,000 dwt multipurpose vessels with Wuhu Xinlian Shipyard in China. The deal includes an option for another four vessels with the option having to be declared in the next few months. The ships will be delivered until late 2011. HLPFI understands that these ships will be deployed on Safmarine’s MPV trades to and from West Africa, with specific deployment to be decided closer to the date of delivery.
Lovemore’s hydraulic boom gantry transfers the solid gas-to-liquid processing plant from truck to dock
Red faces Administrative confusion was to blame at a new South African port as two heavy lift ships were refused permission to dock in the summer. The ships were denied entry to South Africa’s newest port, Ngqura, as the facility remains unfinished and does not reach international security standards. The ships, Beluga Indication and Langeland, were loaded with consignments for a new power station project. The South African Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) had applied for special clearance for the ships 14 days before their arrival. However, the port remains under the control of the contractors as it is unfinished and
80 November/December 2008 HEAVY LIFT & PFI
does not comply with ISPS requirements, has a lack of perimeter fencing, proper gate security and no patrols. In addition the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) had not conducted a security assessment. Despite small misunderstandings such as this and the larger issues that make each project freight assignment either an achievement to celebrate or a nightmare to shrug off, South Africa’s economy is growing, its infrastructure is improving, and the country remains firmly committed to providing the quality of service required to meet the standards expected by First World investment partners. Clearly project freight is alive and well in South Africa.
INTERNATIONAL
Credit crunch:
Riding out the storm
Canada: Energy driven
South Africa: Land of extremes
- Space race in the GCC - The ideal heavy lift ship? - Rail rolls back the borders
Issue: 5
November/December 2008
ANALYSISSOUTH AFRICA
Lovemore runs a dedicated Durban-Johannesburg service
South Africa:
land of extremes Project freight operators don’t know whether to reach for the champagne or the Prozac when they try to conduct their business in South Africa – the land of great commercial opportunity which sometimes has a strange tendency to descend spontaneously into a Third World Nightmare, reports Sharon Gill. ere is a land of extreme distances, extreme temperatures, extreme conditions – and some extremely infuriating accounts of sound business practice sometimes being trampled underfoot by bribery and corruption. South Africa covers an area of just over 1.2million sq km. On a single trip you can pass through modern cities, concentrated pockets of heavy industry, picture-postcard mountain villages, regions so barren and desolate that nobody could live there even if they wanted to, and remote locations for construction projects that have only just left the drawing board.
H
While an AN-124 can land at Durban airport with a 70 tonne load, it can only take off with a load of around 40 tonnes
Any route from A to B can include modern highways, potholed dirt roads, perilous mountain passes, or temporary roads built because there wasn’t one there. South Africa’s 2,798 km coastline includes some of the most treacherous shipping waters in the world. Off the east coast lies what is left of the cruise ship Oceanos, the containership Safmarine Agulhas and plenty more. The hostile west coast is littered with shipwrecks. Richards Bay is currently the main port in the country able to handle the larger out-ofgauge shipments, although the ports of Durban and Cape Town are being upgraded and do see abnormal loads. Construction on the new port of Ngqura in the Eastern Cape is on track. In terms of over-dimensional freight, the country’s rail system is not even an option. But South Africa is also of land of opportunity, particularly for the heavy lift industry, with current construction projects including the commercial scale power station at Koeberg near Cape Town, the new international airport at La Mercy near Durban, and the stadia and related
HEAVY LIFT & PFI November/December 2008
75
ANALYSISSOUTH AFRICA
Hauls the heavy, the unpredictable … and the secret Lovemore Bros transported a 15 tonne fibreglass structure from a manufacturing plant in Durban to Secunda for Sasol’s new Wet Sulphuric Acid Plant. The consignment was trucked to the port of Durban, loaded onto a barge, which was towed to Richards Bay, and then hauled by road to Secunda. According to company director Bruce Lovemore, the decision to use a barge instead of a ship was due to uncertainty about the manufacturing completion date and the consequent risk of having to book, cancel and re-book cargo space on a ship. The decision turned out to be a wise one. Lovemore also transported a solid gas-to-liquid processing plant from the fabrication workshop to the
infrastructure for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, to mention just three in a long list of major works. Furthermore, South Africa is one of the primary transhipment routes to Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and the only way in to Lesotho.
Red tape As in any country, South African heavy lift operators have their fair share of bureaucracy to contend with. The general height restriction for road freight is 4.3 m. Anything above that is an ‘abnormal load’ and you need an abnormal vehicle (AV) permit for each province you will be travelling through. For loads exceeding 125 tonnes, you need ‘superload’ clearance. South Africa is divided into nine provinces, namely Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West and the Western Cape. On a trip from Durban in Kwa ZuluNatal to Johannesburg in Gauteng, you will also pass through either the Free State or Mpumalanga. Depending on the dimensions or weight of the consignment, there are different routes to be followed: The A Route – for loads not exceeding 4.7 m in height. This is the N3, the busiest and most direct Durban-Johannesburg road, which includes the notorious Van Reenen’s Pass over the Drakensberg mountains that separate KZN from the Free State. The South African Road
Transporting a scrubber for Sasol from Durban to Secunda via Richards Bay Port of Durban, where it was loaded onboard a ship bound for Qatar. Due to the confidentiality of the
South Africa is also of land of opportunity with current construction projects including the commercial scale power station at Koeberg near Cape Town, the new international airport at La Mercy near Durban, and the stadia and related infrastructure for the 2010 FIFA World Cup
Federation (SARF) calls for the construction of a dedicated heavy vehicle road facility between Durban and Johannesburg – by far the most
equipment’s design, the consignment was concealed in a wooden crate.
important corridor in South Africa for the conveyance of general freight cargo. Currently more than 80 percent of freight is transported by road. This translates to 36million tonnes per annum being carried on the N3, and the volume is expected to double within 12 years, to 72million tonnes. The Mini B Route – for loads not exceeding 4.89 m in height. This heads south from Durban, then inland to meet up with the N3 just before Pietermaritzburg. The Full B Route – for loads exceeding 4.9 m in height. This bypasses Pietermaritzburg and joins the N3 just before Van Reenen. The ‘Super’ Route – for loads exceeding 85 tonnes in weight. This heads north from Durban on the N2 via Pongola to Ermelo (Mpumalanga), then joins the N17 through Bethal. This was originally built for Sasol as a freight route between Richards Bay and Secunda. For any load higher than 5.5 m, where overhead cables may need to be lifted by helicopter, clearance must be obtained from Eskom (the electricity supplier) and Telkom (the fixed-line telephone service provider), as well as all municipal and traffic departments along the route. Other restrictions applicable to abnormal vehicles include no travelling at night or on weekends or when there are visibility constraints. For out-of-gauge cargo, operators need to provide their own escorts, front and back. For bigger loads, and certainly anything wider than 4.8 m, they also need provincial traffic officer
HEAVY LIFT & PFI November/December 2008
77
ANALYSISSOUTH AFRICA
DIY detours If a load is too high to pass under a main road bridge, there are generally two options: crane it over or transfer the load to dollies and push it through. When Lovemore hauled 20 pieces of paper processing equipment from Durban to Sappi Saiccor on the KZN south coast, it went with a third option and built an on-and off-ramp to bypass a bridge on the main road.
Lovemore hauls digesters for Sappi Saiccor
This is not unusual in South Africa, where access roads for abnormal loads often do not exist. However, the party that builds these roads is responsible for them in terms of maintenance, public safety, etc. In Lovemore’s case, they simply dug up the detour when they had finished using it.
Brewery shipment Vanguard transported eight tanks from the fabrication plant in Johannesburg to Richards Bay harbour for loading on board a ship bound for Dar es Salaam. The 21m long tank is lowered into final position
escorts front and back, from start to finish. South Africa’s Technical Recommendations for Highways was, in the past, the TRH 11 Policy for the conveyance of abnormal loads and the industry complied with the regulations therein. A few years ago it became the TRH 11 Guidelines, which effectively allows administrations and authorities to make their own decisions.
Can of worms Our sources demanded anonymity for fear of repercussions in the form of delayed permits or vehicles being targeted at weighbridges and other checkpoints, but it seems that the permit system can be influenced by corrupt and illegal actions. “We are in a Third World country,” says one industry source, who flatly refuses to be named. “Bribery and corruption can decide whether a permit is granted or not.” In the past, if a permit was refused in terms of the TRH 11 policy, that was the end of it. One operator says he has submitted identical permit applications at the same time to two different people: one was granted, the other rejected. However, while delays may occur, for instance if the authorities call for a stability assessment, permits are rarely refused – although some should be, says yet another operator, adding that a permit will always be issued “for the right price”. “There are plenty of fly-by-night operators who do not bother with AV permits or who take a chance with the wrong vehicle for the wrong job, taking a shorter route and then getting their load stuck under a bridge,” he says. Meanwhile, traffic authority escorts are booked in advance. Operators are generally charged for two escorts but operators say that sometimes only one pitches up. Irrespective of the reason, whether the escort vehicle has been
called to another incident or has broken down, run out of petrol or exceeded its mileage limit for the month – the operator may be billed for two escorts. On the other hand, sometimes the escort does not pitch up on time and the operator is obliged to wait. A delay in one district will impact the transit window through the next and the next. All it needs is bad weather with low visibility, so that the load has to stop for a few hours, and there is a risk that by the time it reaches the final leg of the journey, the permit for that province will have expired.
Delays Permit applications are made according to information provided by the freight forwarder. There have been instances where the consignment is taken off the ship and loaded onto the AV, and only then does the transport operator find out that it is bigger or heavier than stated in the documents. Now he needs to ‘motivate’ someone to obtain an amendment to the permit If it is 4pm, nothing can be done until the next day. Which means that instead of hauling the consignment to the depot, the truck and its load spend the night in port, incurring the wrath of the port authorities and possibly penalties. Gerald Rudman, managing director of Truck Africa, points out that routing details are worked out well in advance. Eskom restricts the hours during which it will lift overhead lines and it also allows just one hour for the load to pass under the lifted line. Delays mean rescheduling line lifts and escorts. However, misinformation like this is not always deliberate. It could be that the base of the flat rack container was not taken into account when the dimensions of the consignment were calculated.
At 21 m long and 5.2 m in diameter, the tanks can each hold 260,000 litres of liquid. Wynand Boshoff, rigging and installation manager, says that Vanguard took custody of the tanks once they arrived at the brewery and successfully installed them despite the huge challenge of space limitations, which required a specially designed portal crane, which spanned the foundation and had a hook height of 25 m. Traffic authority escorts accompany a Lovemore convoy along the N2 north
78 November/December 2008 HEAVY LIFT & PFI
ANALYSISSOUTH AFRICA
SHIP AHOY: Vanguard used its imported Goldhofer trailer system to move the mv Ellen Khuzwayo from the shipbuilder’s warehouse to the synchrolift at the Cape Town Waterfront. Weighing approximately 600 tonnes, the vessel is 16.5 m high, 10.2 m wide and 43.2 m long. The vessel was constructed in cradles and mounted on pedestals to ensure a
Innovative thinking As proof that local authorities sometimes use their initiative, the KZN traffic department now allows the ‘heavies’ to operate outside normal working hours. This serves two purposes: the extended
smooth transition onto the trailers. Once the overhead crane and one of the warehouse walls were dismantled, the trailers were lowered and manoeuvred beneath the ship. Once in place, the trailer was jacked up and the move began. “As far as we know this is the heaviest item to be transported on a public road in South Africa,” says Vanguard’s managing director, Bryan Hodgkinson.
working hours help to reduce congestion on the port’s access roads and it is less disruptive to normal traffic if an AV travels at night. Despite the many issues facing project cargo and heavy lift shipping companies in the coun-
try, the domestic and foreign deep sea heavy lift shipping sector continues to work to provide the shipping capacity required to bolster the nation’s development. Canada-based Commonwealth Independent States Navigation recently established a
Cold box on the move Vanguard is taking a 140 tonne cold box on a 2,400 km journey from Walvis Bay harbour in Namibia to a copper mine in Chingola, Zambia. Vanguard project engineer, James Robinson, says that the port of Walvis Bay was selected over Richards Bay due to the logistical advantages it offers: a shorter distance overall, open roads with fewer built up areas and no escarpments to navigate.
The Vanguard convoy transports a 140 tonne cold box through Namibia
HEAVY LIFT & PFI November/December 2008
79
ANALYSISSOUTH AFRICA
direct, multipurpose service between North America (Montreal, Baltimore and Savannah) and southern Africa. Vice president Milena Dimitrova says the Canada States Africa Line (CSAL) service has launched successfully, carrying a wide range of freight including project cargo and other breakbulk items. The service has a monthly frequency, with a transit time of 22-32 days to Durban, depending on rotation. Freight coordination and operation of the service are managed by CSAL Montreal, while Canadian sales, marketing and operations are handled by Protos Shipping. In South Africa, CSAL calls at Richards Bay, Durban and Cape Town. Meanwhile, media reports indicate that AP Moller Maersk subsidiary Safmarine has placed an order for four 18,000 dwt multipurpose vessels with Wuhu Xinlian Shipyard in China. The deal includes an option for another four vessels with the option having to be declared in the next few months. The ships will be delivered until late 2011. HLPFI understands that these ships will be deployed on Safmarine’s MPV trades to and from West Africa, with specific deployment to be decided closer to the date of delivery.
Lovemore’s hydraulic boom gantry transfers the solid gas-to-liquid processing plant from truck to dock
Red faces Administrative confusion was to blame at a new South African port as two heavy lift ships were refused permission to dock in the summer. The ships were denied entry to South Africa’s newest port, Ngqura, as the facility remains unfinished and does not reach international security standards. The ships, Beluga Indication and Langeland, were loaded with consignments for a new power station project. The South African Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) had applied for special clearance for the ships 14 days before their arrival. However, the port remains under the control of the contractors as it is unfinished and
80 November/December 2008 HEAVY LIFT & PFI
does not comply with ISPS requirements, has a lack of perimeter fencing, proper gate security and no patrols. In addition the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) had not conducted a security assessment. Despite small misunderstandings such as this and the larger issues that make each project freight assignment either an achievement to celebrate or a nightmare to shrug off, South Africa’s economy is growing, its infrastructure is improving, and the country remains firmly committed to providing the quality of service required to meet the standards expected by First World investment partners. Clearly project freight is alive and well in South Africa.
