Nearly 50 percent of a major port construction project in Namibia has been completed. Walvis Bay is situated on 40 hectares of reclaimed land. The chief executive officer of Namport, Bisey Uirab confirmed in a media brief held at Walvis Bay.
Uirab added that the US$2 billion port expansion will enable Namport to handle larger and longer container vessels as well as efficient ship-to-shore cranes once completed.
The new terminal project includes the construction of a modern container terminal that will add 600m of quay length to the already existing 1500m and 650 000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) annual capacity to the already existing 350 000 TEUs.
The terminal will comprise of two berths one is 600 metres in length, have a -16.0 CD water depth, can handle container vessels of 8 000 TEUs and handle 750 000 TEUs annually.
According to Uirab the project is well on schedule as planned and is expected be commissioned in early 2018. The completion of the new container will relieve the current one to be used for multi-purpose cargo.
It will provide more space for bigger cargo vessels to be handled at the current container terminal births “The most prolific development in terms of increasing capacity and expanding our port of Walvis Bay footprint is undoubtedly also the SADC gateway development, which is situated further north from the current port area,” Uirab explained.
He also said that there is an increasing demand for the export and import of bulk commodities within members of SADC and the port area will be strategically suited for this purpose.
He said the development will make Namibia a logistic hub and will be a perfect gateway to SADC member states.
“The 1 330 hectare development will be the key spoke in the Namibia logistics hub and will be a major port gateway serving the ‘shopping mall’ of SADC countries,” he explained.
