Port of East London

The Port of East London is South Africa's only river port and is situated at the mouth of the Buffalo River in the East Cape Province.

At Longitude 27º 55' E and Latitude 33º 1' S the general cargo port has good rail and road connections with the hinterland (Free State and Gauteng) and north and southwest to KZN and Port Elizabeth respectively.

The port boasts the largest export grain elevator in South Africa, which has recently been converted to handle imports in addition to exports.

A car terminal on the West Bank, which includes a four-storey parking facility connected by dedicated road to the adjacent Mercedes Benz factory, has transformed the port. The terminal has a theoretical design throughput of 50,000 units a year with 2,800 parking bays but during the recent 2005/06 financial year ended 31 March it handled 55,480 units. The parkade can be increased to 8 storeys to increase the throughput to 180,000 vehicles a year and provision of a third berth is also possible.

The multi purpose terminal on the East Bank handles an increasing volume of containers and is geared for 90,000 TEUs a year - many for the motor industry. Ships own gear is required as the port lacks gantry cranes.

East London has a dry dock capable of handling ships of up to 200m and a maximum beam of 24.8m. The dock is equipped with four electric and one mobile cranes.

There are a total of 10 commercial berths plus a repair quay of 110m, a pilot jetty and fishing jetty next to the small Latimer's Landing Waterfront. Five of the berths lie on the West Bank. The port has a total of 2,410m of quayside.

The port entrance is dredged up to 12m, the draught at the berths vary from -8.5m to -10.4m alongside. Passenger ships are accommodated at whichever berth is most suitable and available.

The entrance to the Port of East London is dredged for ships with a maximum draught of 10m on all tides or by prior arrangement with the harbour master. The port can accommodate vessels of up to 245m. Draught at the various berths range between 8.5m and 10.4m (grain and oil berths).

The outer anchorage is approximately 1 n.mile east of the southern breakwater but the position is exposed. Pilotage into port is compulsory from a boarding point 2 n.miles northeast of the north breakwater, serviced by pilot boat. Tug assistance is compulsory within the port.

The port is serviced with a fleet of two tugs, 1978-built 43ton bollard pull Z-Peller tugs Mpunzi and Umtwalume and a workboat/tug of the Tern class named Tristan Tern, which has a 19t bollard pull and which entered service in July 1998, plus a harbour launch. Pilotage and tug assistance is compulsory.

Normal marine services are available between the hours of 06:00 – 22:00, services occurring outside this time are subject to overtime surcharges. The NSRI maintains a station base at the port and has a rescue craft named ACSA Rescue One available for emergencies at sea.

Like other ports of South Africa, East London is a common user port, meaning that it usually operates on a first-come-first-served basis. The port consists of a Multi-Purpose Terminal (including the container terminal) on the East Bank, and a Bulk Terminal (Grain Elevator) and Car Terminal both on the West Bank.

The Grain Elevator, with a storage capacity of 76,000 tonnes is the largest in South Africa. In the 1970s the elevator handled 3.8 million tonnes of exports and in 1994 a total of 2.1mt, during a time when the Durban facility was out of commission. Recently the elevator was converted to handle discharged cargo (imports) and in recent years has handled World Food Aid imports on behalf of the United Nations.

Nowadays the Multi Purpose Terminal handles mainly containers - 42,545 TEUs during 2004 using ships own gear as the port lacks gantry cranes or other sophisticated container-handling equipment. The Car Terminal on the West Bank has been responsible for a turnabout in the port's fortunes and is geared to handle 50,000 units annually, which it already exceeds, and has space for expansion when required.

Bunkering with fuel oil and marine gas oil is not available at the port.

Ship repair facilities are extensive and the port has a dry dock able to handle ships up to 200m length.

The outer anchorage one n.mile east of the south breakwater offers anchorage for vessels outside the port, but lies in an exposed position.

A full range of ships chandling and stevedoring is available. The port houses a yachting marina within the harbour at Latimer's Landing and the NSRI maintains a rescue vessel named ACSA Rescuer One plus an inflatable named Spirit of Madiba.

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Port of Port Elizabeth

Port Elizabeth has been an important port and harbour on the South Africa east coast ever since the first British settlers began arriving from 1820. Today it is a multi cargo port on the western perimeter of Algoa Bay, 384 n.miles southwest of Durban and 423 n.miles east of Cape Town at Longitude 25º 42' E, Latitude 34º 01' S.

Following the arrival of British settlers in 1820 the harbour achieved port status in 1825 with the appointment of a harbour master and collector of customs a year later. In 1836 a surfboat service was provided for the handling of cargo and passengers, with the first jetty constructed in 1837. Forty years later in 1877 Port Elizabeth had developed into the principal port of South Africa with exports valued at the equivalent of R6 million.

Agriculture and farming has always played an important role in the port's activities, principally deciduous and citrus fruit and the annual wool crop. More recently containers have assumed an prominent role in the fortunes of the harbour, with Port Elizabeth serving its local industrial base and forming an alternate port of call to container ships whenever the Durban or Cape Town container terminals are congested.

Other principal products handled include manganese ore, which is railed from the Northern Cape, and petroleum products which are imported from other South African ports. The motor industry has long been an important industry to the Eastern Cape and the port has a leading role in this regard and boasts a large open area car terminal. The fishing industry also makes extensive use of the port. There are no major ship repair facilities but a slipway is available for fishing vessel repair. Passenger ships usually make use of one of the fruit terminal berths when calling at Port Elizabeth.

The port's container terminal has three berths totalling 925m in length and a storage area of 22ha with 5,400 ground slots for stacking purposes. The container terminal is equipped with gantry container cranes and straddle carriers.

The breakbulk terminal has 6 berths (1,170m), two bulk berths totalling 360m and a tanker berth of 242m. The tug, fishery and trawler jetties measure 120m, 165m and 136m respectively.

The port has adequate rail and road links with other parts of the country.

The South African Navy has established a naval station at Port Elizabeth but does not maintain any ships at the station. In the future much of the port's present commercial activity may be lost to the new and nearby port of Ngqura (Coega) although it appears certain that the car terminal and possible the container terminal will remain intact.

The entrance channel to Port Elizabeth is maintained at a depth of -14.5m Chart Datum and has a generous width of 310m. Limitations on vessels using the port are 11m draught for passenger and dry cargo vessels, 11.2m for container ships, 12.1m for ore carriers and 9.6m for tankers, all according to berthing. Deeper vessels may be accommodated with the permission of the harbour master. Tug assistance and pilotage is compulsory. Ships may anchor outside the port in Algoa Bay provided the approaches to the entrance channel are kept clear.

The port has a fleet of three tugs and Pilot services are performed by a pilot or workboat. The port also makes use of a harbour launch/work boat.

These services are available 24 hours a day seven days a week. Dredging services are provided by dredgers from either Durban or Richards Bay as required. The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) maintains a base at Port Elizabeth. Port Volumes:

Port Elizabeth handled a total of 1,390 ships during the 2005/06 financial year ended 31 March 2006, with a total tonnage of 26,131,718-gt.

Cargo handled during the fiscal year 2005/06 amounted to 3,983,054 tonnes excluding containers, of which 3,116,274 tonnes was bulk cargo, and 866,780t breakbulk. Containers (370,849 in 2005/06) in tonnes may be estimated as being 5,006,461 tonnes, giving the port an estimated total volume by tonnes of 8,122,735 tonnes. Imports (without containers) amounted to 1,473,559t and exports 2,509,164t.

The port handled 370,849 TEUs during 2005/06, of which 216,740 were imports and 154,109 were exports.

Port Elizabeth's main features are the container terminal, fruit terminal and manganese terminal. The container terminal has a capacity of around 375,000 TEUs and has the advantage of being able to load railway trains directly under the gantry cranes, without containers having to be double handled, thus speeding up delivery to inland destinations.

There are 5,400 ground slots for conventional container handling. The terminal handled 370,849 TEUs in 2005/06. The terminal has three quayside gantry cranes and is supported by a number of straddle carriers. Motor vehicle components constitute a large percentage of the container traffic at Port Elizabeth, with other commodities including steel, machinery, wool, and agricultural products making up the balance.

The breakbulk terminal handles a variety of agricultural products including wheat imports and fruit (deciduous and citrus) exports as well as steel, scrap, timber and motor vehicles. At the bulk facility the storage bins have a capacity of 350,000 tonnes of manganese ore, which is the major bulk export from Port Elizabeth.

The port offers bunker facilities at berths 13, 14 and 15 (ore and tanker berths), with diesel oil available at the Dom Pedro Quay (trawler quay).

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