Business
South Africa Upgrades Port, Rail Infrastructure To Boost Exports
In fact, because 95 percent of all trade to the region passes through these ports – and other major ports of East Africa, if one port experiences any interruption due to a bottleneck, the entire region can feel the effect. This, in turn, would affect goods getting to the other members of the 15-country Southern African Development Community, including Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Expanding Port Infrastructure
In April 2012, Transnet formulated a Market Demand Strategy that will spend $28 billion through 2019 to create freight capacity before demand exceeds capacity across rail and ports infrastructure, including $3 billion to boost port operations. TPT wants to help also grow business outside of South Africa by forming partnerships with other African ports “to strengthen the economic and social development of the African continent” by providing operational, technical and systems advice, as well as improve intermodal connectivity in the region.
Some of the major contractors recently announced for the infrastructure projects include firms from the US and China, though the actual work will remain primarily localized. Los Angeles-based engineering firm AECOM is a “global provider of professional technical and management support services,” including transportation projects and the Fortune 500 company serves public and private clients in more than 140 countries. The company has been active in Africa since the 1960s and today they are present in more than 30 African countries.
AECOM’s new Transnet projects include rail and material-handling infrastructure for a new railroad car rotary dumper in Saldanha; expansion of the container terminal in the Port of Cape Town; new iron ore train-loading facilities at Postmasburg; fire-suppression system upgrades at various locations; resurfacing of various berths in the Port of Cape Town; new-build port buildings; and numerous building upgrades and expansions.
Each of the projects has a construction cost of up to $150 million – a total of approximately $2.2 billion – and AECOM estimates its fees on the projects will total up to approximately $30 million. AECOM is also involved with Transnet’s proposed Durban Port “digout,” a project to expand one of the busiest ports in Africa. “We are currently 80 percent of the way through the pre-feasibility study,” AECOM’s Dickard told AFKInsider. “We anticipate more expansions in the Ports of Saldanha, Durban, Richards Bay, Ngqura and Cape Town.”
