Richards Bay Harbor
| Richards Bay Harbor | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Data | |||
| UN / LOCODE | ZA RCB | ||
| operator | Transnet National Ports Authority | ||
| opening | April 1, 1976 | ||
| Port type | Freight port | ||
| Piers / quays | 23 | ||
| Goods handled | General cargo , bulk cargo , container , raw materials , | ||
| Average opening days (year) | 365 | ||
| website | www.transnetnationalportsauthority.net (English) | ||
| Geographic information | |||
| place | Richards Bay | ||
| province | KwaZulu-Natal | ||
| Country | South Africa | ||
| Coordinates | 28 ° 48 ′ 0 ″ S , 32 ° 3 ′ 0 ″ E | ||
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The port of Richards Bay ( English Port Richards Bay ) is the largest export port in South Africa and is located in Richards Bay on the east coast of the country in the province of KwaZulu-Natal . It is operated by the state's national port authority ( Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA)).
Location and general
The port facilities are located in a lagoon that is enclosed by a flat coastal plain. The terrain rises slightly to the west. In the dune landscape of the harbor area there is partially natural forest ( KwaZulu-Natal Dune Forest ), from which the suburb Meer En See also benefits. The climate is subtropical .
The ship entrance to the port is 300 meters wide, which widens to 400 meters towards the sea. With a water depth of 22 meters at the pier , Richards Bay is one of the deep water harbors . There is an excavation depth of 19 meters in the piers at the coal terminal and 14.5 meters in most of the other piers. The tidal range of the tides is 2.47 meters. The nearest ports are on the one hand 160 kilometers southwest in Durban and on the other hand 465 kilometers north in Maputo ( Mozambique ). The port control center operates 24 hours a day. There is no special berth for cruise passenger ships . As a temporary measure, a jetty can be made available in a special zone.
history
When Commissioner Henry Cloete explored the mouth of the Mhlatuze River in 1843 , the opinion developed that there was little or no potential for the construction of a port here. For a long time, the lagoon was not considered economically from this perspective.
When the industrialization of South Africa picked up speed at the beginning of the 1950s, a growing need for new and expanded port facilities became noticeable. The Chamber of Mines , the very influential association of the coal and steel industry in South Africa, pointed to the necessary development of the transport and port system in South Africa. That was the decisive factor for planning and transport infrastructure investments across the country.
In its 1968 report, the Permanent Committee for the Location of Industry recommended the establishment and expansion of new industrial centers in conjunction with indigenous reserves in order to better meet the need for cheap labor in labor-intensive industries. The Empangeni / Richards Bay region also belonged to the designated locations .
In 1968, the South African Parliament discussed and approved plans for the construction of transport infrastructure in relation to Richards Bay. A railway line was to be built between Empangeni and the bay. The plans also included the construction of a trunk road to Vryheid in order to better connect the less developed regions with traffic. The then Minister of Economics reported in May 1968 on the ongoing plans for the construction of the port. A planning group made up of staff from the Permanent Committee , the Industrial Development Corporation and the provincial government was preparing for an industrial area in Richards Bay. For this purpose, the area of the existing African Reserve No. 6 and two new township settlements for the reserve residents and other newcomers interested in industrial work are planned. During this time, an aluminum smelting plant was already in the construction phase.
With Proclamation 82 of March 20, 1970, the government abolished Reserve No. 6. Its area was 4,856 hectares. The residents were offered a 36,354 hectare area for resettlement in the far north of the province, on the Pongola River not far from Reserve No. 14 and the Ndumu Game Reserve . This affected 647 African families of the Mandlazini tribe, consisting of 5,579 people, among whom, however, there was little interest in resettling far away or in future housing in the township. The reason for this procedure came from the Bantu Affairs Commission , according to which the area of the reserve would be required for the construction of a new township to support the new border industry area of Richards Bay.
The ALUSAF aluminum melting plant went into operation in 1972. In the same year the parliamentary deliberation process began for the project of a commercial port called Richards Bay Lagoon . The Transvaal Coal Owners Association concluded in 1972 with Japanese steelmakers a ten year contract to supply 27 million tons of coal per year from. This agreement promoted the rapid expansion of the relevant transport capacities. Before the mid-1970s, construction began on the port of Richards Bay on the east coast of South Africa. Its construction was favored by the natural lagoon in the mouth of a river, which led to considerable interference in an existing rich biosphere .
In 1974, the Minister of Transportation reported that the construction of a new railway coal transportation route already about 184 million for three large sections margin had been invested. The expansion work for the maximum expansion in the ALUSAF melting plant was completed. Triomf Fertilizer Investments started the construction of a factory for the production of phosphoric acid , the production of which was planned for October 1976 with an annual output of 400,000 tons. The Industrial Development Corporation announced in 1974 plans that the construction of titanium processing plants would be considered.
The port was officially opened on April 1, 1976. At that time, the coal sector had an annual handling capacity of 12 million tons per year. The bulk goods terminal represents the historical core of the port's development and achieved a turnover of 100,000 tons in the first year.
As a result of the declining state of preservation of the national road R33 between Mpumalanga and the port, it lost shares of freight to other ports. In this way, increasing amounts of manganese ore and coal are being shipped to the Port of Maputo and fruit to the Port of Cape Town .
Port facilities
A dry bulk terminal , a multi-purpose terminal and the coal terminal operated by a consortium, the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), are available in the port of Richards Bay for cargo handling . Other owners operate a bulk liquid terminal and a wooden terminal. There is a small ship repair facility in the Small Craft Port .
Multipurpose terminal
The Multi Purpose Terminal (MPT) is located in the area of the deep water port of Richards Bay and is divided into two areas, Bulk Metal and the Combi Terminals . Bulky goods and container freight can be handled here. The MPT has six berths and an annual loading capacity of 5.6 million tons.
There are warehouses on the MPT area with a total usable area of 10,000 m 2 , which can be supplemented by a further 8,000 m 2 with tarpaulins . Furthermore, 4,500 m 2 are available in simple sheds. The existing open storage area is 330,000 m 2 , including 75,000 m 2 for steel products and a log terminal of 55,000 m 2 .
Bulk terminal
The dry bulk terminal (DPT) has a unique conveyor system that enables the loading of several raw materials at the same time and prevents mutual contamination. This reduces or avoids a possible cleaning effort for the goods. The maximum permitted size of the individual bulk material components is 65 millimeters. The types of bulk goods handled here are diverse. Specifically, these are: andalusite , magnetite , pig iron , rutile , zirconium , titanium slag, vanadium slag, manganese concentrates , chromium concentrates , vermiculite , phosphate rocks , aluminum oxide , coke , anthracite coal , blast furnace coal , petroleum coke , rock salt , sulfur and wood chips .
Coal terminal
The Richards Bay Coal Terminal, abbreviated RBCT, is one of the Richards Bay Coal Terminal Proprietary Ltd. operated loading facility to be able to ship coal delivered via the Richards Bay Coal Line from the mines in Mpumalanga. In this region, 80 percent of the South African coal is mined, the export takes place almost exclusively via the port of Richards Bay.
The group of owners consists of a consortium of 14 companies including Glencore , Anglo American and BHP Billiton . The annual throughput volume has been increased by expanding the facility several times and in 2009 reached a capacity of 91 million tons per year. The terminal's quay is 2,200 meters long and has 6 berths with a total of four loading systems. The two largest ship loading systems can each convey 10,000 and 11,000 tons per hour.
Tank terminal
The tank terminal ( Richards Bay Bunker Terminal ) of Joint Bunker Services holds marine diesel oil and marine fuel oil ready for loading.
Liquid bulk cargo terminal
In Flüssigmassengutterminal ( Bulk Liquids Terminal ) various liquid chemicals are available. These are mainly propene , butadiene , ammonia , hexane , octane , acetone and technical alcohol . The companies operating here are Richards Bay Bulk Storage (Pty.) Ltd. and Island View Storage Ltd.
Phosphoric acid terminal
Sasol Agri operates a terminal ( Agri Terminal ) for the loading of phosphoric acid . It is available in four tanks and is pumped to the ships using pipelines.
Transport links
In the national road network, the port area is linked via several routes:
- The National Route 2 (N2), a the coast of KwaZulu-Natal along leading national road, are accessible by all major centers of the country.
- The John Ross Highway (R34), a provincial main road that leads from Empangeni to Richards Bay to the port area and the neighboring industrial areas.
- Four other regional roads from the area lead to the port area.
The airport, Richards Bay Airport , is not part of the port area, is managed by the semi-public Airports Company South Africa and guarantees flights to Johannesburg to OR Tambo International Airport .
Individual evidence
- ↑ TNPA. www.transnetnationalportsauthority.net
- ^ A b Richards Bay Coal Termial: Key facts & history. from www.rbct.co.za ( memento of February 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on June 3, 2013
- ↑ www.transnetnationalportsauthority.net
- ↑ a b Port of Richards Bay. on www.transnetnationalportsauthority.net
- ^ Richards Bay: Functions
- ↑ Ports & Ships. Richards Bay. on www. ports.co.za
- ^ A b SAIRR : A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1969 . Johannesburg 1970, p. 99
- ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1968 . Johannesburg 1969, p. 101
- ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1970 . Johannesburg 1971, pp. 131-132
- ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1971 . Johannesburg 1972, p. 116
- ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1972 . Johannesburg 1973, p. 284
- ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1974 . Johannesburg 1975, pp. 276-277
- ↑ Richards Bay. on www.ports.co.za
- ↑ Web presence of the Richards Bay Coal Terminal . on www.rbct.co.za
- ↑ RBCT Shareholders. In: RBCT. Retrieved October 14, 2015 .
- ↑ Infrastructure and facilities. on www.rbct.co.za ( Memento from July 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ A b c Limpopo Province: Freight Transport Data Bank. on www.ldrt.gov.za ( Memento from June 19, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ DPWRT: Mpumalanga Province Freight Data Bank: Port Of Richards Bay . on www.safiri.co.za