Imported maize is pouring into East London and millions are being spent on upgrading the railway line from the port into the hinterland.
“It’s a mini-boom,” said Wandisa Vazi, East London’s port terminal manager in an exclusive interview last week.
She said the terminal recently loaded imported Mexican maize onto three trains, each with 40 wagons, all bound for Zimbabwe.
“The last time this operation was conducted was in 2008,” she said, adding R12-million was being spent on refurbishing the rail line right up to Aliwal North, much of it on replacing rotting wooden sleepers with concrete.
The repairs are due for completion at the end of September.
R1-million has already been spent on fixing lines on the sea-facing side of the port’s grain terminal on the West Bank.
“Our budget for imported maize was 80000 tons over the April-September peak season, but we are already at 115000 tons and we expect to hit 120000 tons by September.”
The number of bulk ships visiting the terminal had gone from one a month to three and was now at seven a month.
By September and October the terminal will be operating at 90% capacity. It expects to have handled at least 24 ships between April and October, she said.
The imports were providing East London jobs for 15 Transnet employees and 10 workers employed by a contractor, giving a total of 25 jobs.
She said the snarl-ups caused by grain trucks parking in the streets of West Bank had been eased as trucks were now allowed to park inside the port.
Road is still the dominant form of transport for the maize, with 70% being trucked away from port and 30% going by rail, but Vazi said there was a push in Transnet Freight Rail to make the price of moving goods by rail to Johannesburg from Durban and East London the same.
Vazi said the work done on the rail link reflected Transnet’s shift from road back to rail.
Transnet provincial corporate affairs manager Sindie Ndwalaza said drought had reduced SA-grown wheat and yellow maize by 28% from nine million down to seven million tons. As a result SA has to import the shortfall and the East London terminal has “stepped up to the plate to meet these demands” with the recent refurbishment of the grain elevator and rail connectivity.
The changing fortunes of the grain terminal are reflected by Ndwalaza’s comments in April last year, when she said export volumes of grain had dwindled to zero over the previous 15 years and the gallery had become unsafe and uneconomic to repair.
Just last week Siya Mhlaluka, general manager of Transnet’s port terminals in the Eastern Cape, called the grain silo “the largest on the SA coastline” and said it had now been identified as being “strategically positioned to support for the agricultural strategy of the (southern African) region and the country”.
He said Transnet was gearing up to “accommodate inevitable future demand”.
Vazi said the maize coming through her terminal was the result of “a lot of marketing” including six presentations, one of them to the influential Grain SA. — mikel@dispatch.co.za
Mini-boom for EL port and rail due to drought
“It’s a mini-boom,” said Wandisa Vazi, East London’s port terminal manager in an exclusive interview last week.
She said the terminal recently loaded imported Mexican maize onto three trains, each with 40 wagons, all bound for Zimbabwe.
“The last time this operation was conducted was in 2008,” she said, adding R12-million was being spent on refurbishing the rail line right up to Aliwal North, much of it on replacing rotting wooden sleepers with concrete.
The repairs are due for completion at the end of September.
R1-million has already been spent on fixing lines on the sea-facing side of the port’s grain terminal on the West Bank.
“Our budget for imported maize was 80000 tons over the April-September peak season, but we are already at 115000 tons and we expect to hit 120000 tons by September.”
The number of bulk ships visiting the terminal had gone from one a month to three and was now at seven a month.
By September and October the terminal will be operating at 90% capacity. It expects to have handled at least 24 ships between April and October, she said.
The imports were providing East London jobs for 15 Transnet employees and 10 workers employed by a contractor, giving a total of 25 jobs.
She said the snarl-ups caused by grain trucks parking in the streets of West Bank had been eased as trucks were now allowed to park inside the port.
Road is still the dominant form of transport for the maize, with 70% being trucked away from port and 30% going by rail, but Vazi said there was a push in Transnet Freight Rail to make the price of moving goods by rail to Johannesburg from Durban and East London the same.
Vazi said the work done on the rail link reflected Transnet’s shift from road back to rail.
Transnet provincial corporate affairs manager Sindie Ndwalaza said drought had reduced SA-grown wheat and yellow maize by 28% from nine million down to seven million tons. As a result SA has to import the shortfall and the East London terminal has “stepped up to the plate to meet these demands” with the recent refurbishment of the grain elevator and rail connectivity.
The changing fortunes of the grain terminal are reflected by Ndwalaza’s comments in April last year, when she said export volumes of grain had dwindled to zero over the previous 15 years and the gallery had become unsafe and uneconomic to repair.
Just last week Siya Mhlaluka, general manager of Transnet’s port terminals in the Eastern Cape, called the grain silo “the largest on the SA coastline” and said it had now been identified as being “strategically positioned to support for the agricultural strategy of the (southern African) region and the country”.
He said Transnet was gearing up to “accommodate inevitable future demand”.
Vazi said the maize coming through her terminal was the result of “a lot of marketing” including six presentations, one of them to the influential Grain SA. — mikel@dispatch.co.za
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