Oct 8, 2012 – Johannesburg — A strike by truck drivers is set to spread to rail and port workers this week, the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) said.
source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201210080134.html
The Port of Richards Bay, the largest coal export terminal in the world, is located approximately 160km north-east of Durban and 465km south of Maputo, on the eastern seaboard of South Africa.
The establishment of the port 30 years ago has transformed a small fishing village into a dynamic industrial city, and a new berth has opened every second year.
To date the port has handled in excess of 1.3 billion tonnes of coal and a further 500 million tonnes of other raw materials and cargo.
The average throughput is over 80 million tonnes annually, which represents an impressive 60% of South Africa’s total seaborne cargo. There are five dedicated cargo-handling terminals at which approximately 1700 vessel calls are made each year. Port of Richards Bay has an entrance channel 300m wide with a permissible draft of 17.5m, and open storage for 6.7 million tonnes of coal.
The port boasts four bulk ship loaders and a massive 58km conveyor belt system on the stockyard side.
Major developments already underway include an additional bulk liquid handling berth and a ship repair facility. Container traffic for the hinterland is handled through the sister port in Durban, situated 160km south, however there is a project at preliminary design stage for a 50,000 TEUs container handling facility.
A massive US$140 million investment strategy to expand the coal terminal capacity to 92 million tonnes per annum is at an advanced stage.
http://www.arabiansupplychain.com/article-1064-top-10-africa-ports/2/
