Container island nears completion

The Namibian ports authority (Namport) hosts a public information session at the Mission to Seafarers at Walvis Bay next Wednesday to update interested parties on progress with regard to the construction of the container terminal on reclaimed land in the port of Walvis Bay.

The container terminal island is constructed by Chinese construction giant China Harbour and Engineering Company (CHEC) and the groundbreaking of the project was on 19 May 2014.
The island is 40 hectares in size and upon completion of the civil works, a state of the art container terminal will be constructed and equipment installed which will boost the port of Walvis Bay’s current capacity of 350 000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEU’s) per annum to 750 000 TEU’s.
The cost of the project is N$4 billion of which Namport had to seek financing of N$3 billion, according to project details.
The terminal will add an additional 600m of quay space to the port of Walvis Bay as well as a passenger ship terminal.
∙ Also on Wednesday, Namport will see the official re-opening of the Walvis Bay Syncrolift which was closed since 7 April this year for major refurbishment. The Syncrolift is in use since 1973 and since no broad spectrum refurbishment work were undertaking. The lift platform and side transfer system were the key focus areas of the refurbishment and will add a significant life span to the Syncrolift at the background of Walvis Bay positioning itself as the preferred hub for ship repairs on the West African coast.