South Africa is amongst the top ten deciduous fruit exporters in the world, and every year Cape Town Container Terminal, gears up for the peak season differently to ensure an efficient service.
Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) Cape Town has beefed up its operations this year through increasing the terminal’s straddle carrier fleet from eight to 12. This has been done to ensure uninterrupted operations on the landside during wind-bound conditions. Reefers area will be kitted with five straddle carriers while seven will be used to service general purpose containers. The terminal is pre-eminently positioned to export deciduous fruit mainly to Europe between October and March annually. Brenda Magqwaka, Terminal Manager, states, “The two recently acquired ship-to-shore cranes will facilitate the deployment of seven gangs on the waterside operation, to complement our reefer season plan. The additional reach stackers will be deployed in rubber-tyred-gantry crane (RTG) stacks during wind-bound conditions. Furthermore, the multi-purpose facility is also capacitated to handle diverted geared vessels.”
The export of deciduous fruits like pears, grapes, apricots, nectarines, plums, peaches and apples is an important earner of foreign exchange for South Africa (SA). The country’s combined industry value of citrus and deciduous fruit exceeds R21 billion annually. SA’s competitive advantage is delivering the products on time to overseas markets ahead of the competition. As such, integrated planning, communication and coordination will underpin all TPT efforts hence the existence of the National Planning Centre to monitor reefer vessels for improved turnaround time 24 hours daily.
