Walvis container terminal turned into storage yard for Cape Town cargo
In what must certainly be the exception in large volume logistics, the Port of Walvis Bay notched another first this week when its new container terminal became the storage ground for 1513 container units that should have gone to Cape Town.
The containers were offloaded on Sunday 27 June 2021 in a normal eight-hour shift transferring 512 container units per hour.
The acting Executive: Commercial, Elias Mwenyo said the containers are stored in Walvis Bay as an interim destination due to berthing problems at the Port of Cape Town in South Africa. In the meantime, the carrier, the MV Cypress carries on with deliveries to other ports and will return in a fortnight to collect the cargo earmarked for Cape Town again and then take it there.
Since August 2019 when the new container terminal was inaugurated, the Walvis Bay port has been very busy, receiving and processing some of the world’s largest container vessels.
This weekend’s temporary discharge by the MV Cypress was its maiden call to Walvis Bay.
“In our quest to be the best performing seaports in Africa, the Port of Walvis Bay continues to demonstrate operational agility and efficiency in accommodating MV Cypress who, due to berthing delays in South Africa called on the Port of Walvis Bay to temporarily offload the said container units,” Mwenyo explained.
His colleague, the Namibian Ports Authority’s Manager: Terminals, said they expect the MV Cypress back by the middle of July, at which point it will receive back its parked containers.
“We wish to express our appreciation to CMA-CGM Shipping Line for the trust bestowed upon the Port of Walvis Bay’s ability to service the MV Cypress, thus allowing it to make timeous call to the next scheduled destination port,” he said.
