South Africa’s port of Durban resulted with an overall throughput of 2.975 million TEU, increased from the 2.699 million in 2017. That’s an rise of 276.000 TEU for the year, equal to over 10%, which will be a boost to Transnet Port Terminals (TPT). Nationally the increase on containers was 5.3% with the total for all ports reaching 4.833 million TEU, according to the Mercury.
Specifically, total cargo throughput:
- For all products for Durban was 83.161 million tonnes, experiencing an increase by 6.47%, meaning 78.106 million tonnes more than 2017;
- Nationally the throughput was 294.29 million tonnes, an rise of 1.33%. on the 290.428 million tonnes in 2017.
The number of vessels arriving:
- In South African Ports keeps decreased to 9.202, down from 9.821 in 2017. As recently as in 2014 and 2015 the total for all ports was over 12.000 ships;
- In port of Durban the number of vessels decreased to 3.061 with a gross tonnage of 114.375.272-gt. In 2017 the ship number was 3.323 vessel calls while in 2014 it was just on 4.000 vessels.
Moreover, the Port of Richard Bay’s volumes rose to 103.55 million tonnes, 99.984 more tonnes from 2017, meaning additional 3.566 million tonnes (3.56%).
Additionally, Richards Bay Coal Terminal exported in 2018 3 million tonnes less than 2017 when in exported 73.47 million tonnes.
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Futhermore, 3 million tonnes was in breakbulk, an important amount, the majority of which was exported. The balance was was in bulk cargo of various commodities including liquid bulk which made up just on 9million tons of that total, again all mainly for export.
According to the Mercury, Richards Bay can be mainly described as an export port.
Although RBCT didn’t reach its target of 77 million tonnes, as it was 4% less on the 2017 figure, it was due to a decreased global demand.
Concluding, the coal business unit responsible for the Richards Bay rail operation of Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) accounts for over 60% of all TFR revenue.
