Saldanha port
| Saldanha port | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Data | |||
| UN / LOCODE | ZA SDB | ||
| owner | Republic of South Africa | ||
| operator | Transnet National Ports Authority | ||
| start of building | 1973 | ||
| opening | 1976 | ||
| Port type | Freight port | ||
| Piers / quays | 6th | ||
| Goods handled | Bulk goods , general cargo , liquid bulk goods , raw materials , lead , copper , salt , frozen fish | ||
| Average opening days (year) | 365 (bulk, oil) | ||
| website | www.transnetnationalportsauthority.net (English) | ||
| Geographic information | |||
| place | Saldanha | ||
| province | Western cape | ||
| Country | South Africa | ||
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| Coordinates | 33 ° 1 '23 " S , 17 ° 57' 16" O | ||
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The port of Saldanha ( English Port of Saldanha , also Port of Saldanha Bay ) is located on the South African Atlantic coast . It is the largest natural anchorage and deepest harbor in southern Africa . The port is located in the bay of the same name in the area of the Local Municipality Saldanha Bay .
The operator and administrator for the port is the state-run Transnet National Ports Authority .
location
The port of Saldanha is located about 140 kilometers northwest of Cape Town in a natural bay on the west coast of South Africa. The modern port facilities are protected by an artificial breakwater on the sea side . The total land and water area claimed by the port area comprises 18,300 hectares.
The four-kilometer-long jetty has been dividing the inland area of the bay into Small Bay and Big Bay since 1975 . In the southern part of the bay is the Langebaan Lagoon, part of the West Coast National Park , which has been under protection under the Ramsar Convention since April 25, 1988 .
history
Since Saldanha Bay was settled by European immigrants, its preferred location has been used as a seaport. The early goods handled here came from the mining of guano and from the animal products processed here from fishing and hunting . There has been a railway connection since 1913.
In the 1960s, the coal and steel industry's interest in the iron ore deposits around Sishen and Postmasburg in northwest South Africa increased. Increased mining was linked to the question of how the ore to be extracted there could be transported or exported to its destinations. Investigations in this regard have been carried out since 1969 and the bay of Saldanha turned out to be the most suitable port region. In May 1973 construction work began on today's industrial port and in September 1976 iron ore was loaded for the first time here.
The South African government submitted several bills to parliament for approval for the construction and future operational capability. This resulted in:
- Saldanha Bay Harbor Construction Act ( Act No. 29/1973 )
- Saldanha Bay Harbor Construction Amendment Act ( Act No. 77/1976 )
- Saldanha Bay Harbor Acquisition and Equipment Act ( Act No. 99/1976 ).
With Law No. 29 of 1973, the state-owned company South African Iron and Steel Industrial Corporation, Limited ( Iscor ) was given the task of building, equipping and managing the port for the purpose of handling ore and carrying out the necessary maintenance work. Furthermore, on this basis, specifications were made for the installation of technical systems for port operations, such as the telegraph and telephone systems as well as the navigation systems required for ship traffic. The loading station for the iron ore was built on a mighty pier . The breakwater protecting them now connects the Hoedjies Point Peninsula with the former Marcus Island in the center of the bay.
The construction work began in 1973 with the use of predominantly domestic companies. The required effort was estimated at 460 million rand in the project phase . The companies involved had to orientate themselves in their own planning and construction work on the numerous scientific studies from the run-up to the port project. This work came from the CSIR in Pretoria and the Dutch International Institute for Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering (IHE) in Delft .
The construction of the ore railway from Sishen to Saldanha ran parallel and began on June 1, 1973. The first ore transport by rail reached Saldanha on May 14, 1976. On September 27, the first ore cargo ship left the port for Europe. On November 15, 1978, an ore train from the Beeshoek mining area near Postmasburg arrived in the port for the first time .
The beginning of the transhipment of iron ore for export as well as the landing of oil and its storage facilities generated only a moderate development boost in the region until the end of the 1970s. In 1980 a general cargo terminal was built, which has since enabled the export of lead , zinc , copper and steel products. A first delivery of ore concentrates from the Black Mountain mining area near Aggeneys , which was commissioned in 1979 , reached the port of Saldanha in January 1980.
Since February 1996, Iscor and the Industrial Development Corporation have been building one of the largest South African steel mill complexes on site, which is now part of Arcelor Mittal and is the Group's flagship. The operation of the steel mill started in June 1998.
In 2003 the National Port Authority started investigations into the oil consumption of industrial and commercial customers along the South African Atlantic coast, which was followed by an expansion of interim storage capacities in the port area.
Berths
The port of Saldanha has three berths for multi-purpose cargo handling ( Multipurpose Terminal , MPT), two for loading iron ore ( Saldanha Iron Ore Terminal ) and one for oil products ( Oil tanker quay ).
The multipurpose terminal (MPT) mainly handles goods from and for the industrial sites of Iscor , Saldanha Steel , Namaqua Sands and Duferco Steel Processing (DSP).
The ore terminal (BTS) works with a semi-automatic bulk goods loading system that brings the ore freight from the storage facility to the ships via a linear conveyor system. Gas, oil and diesel are delivered from Cape Town, unloaded at the tip of the ore terminal and are available for customers in the port area. There is no pipeline to consumer locations. The oil terminal is equipped with three hydraulic 16-inch Chiksan ( marine loading arms ) for bulk liquids. PetroSA ( Mossgas quay ) is located north of the access road to the railway .
At Sea Harvest Quay there are freezers and additional storage space for the fishing industry.
Further technical and constructive features
The port is equipped with the Automatic Identification System , which enables computer-aided control of ship traffic.
The quay channels of the ore and oil loading points are 23 meters deep. The port basin in the turning area of the cargo ships was dredged to 23.2 meters. The harbor basin reaches its greatest depth at 23.7 meters.
To avoid dust in the area of ore storage and handling, water is sprayed. For this purpose, a seawater desalination plant is operated using osmosis technology .
Transport links
The port forms the end point for inland transport and the loading point for iron ore and metallurgical products that come in bulk from the interior of the country via the Sishen – Saldanha railway , mainly from the Beeshoek Mine and Khumani Mine of Assmang , as well as from processing plants close to the coast for ship loading .
There are two local airports near the port, both about 15 kilometers away. This is Langebaanweg Airport in the east of the bay and Saldanha Vredenburg Airport in the north .
The R27 runs south along the coast and is the shortest road link to Cape Town. The R399 leads from the junction at Piketberg of the national road N7 to Saldanha and ends in the bay.
A railway line ( Hopefield Railway ) via Hopefield , Darling to Kalbaskraal and past the Bellville freight station , forms the rail link between the port for passenger traffic to Cape Town.
Perspectives
The further expansion of the ore terminal in the course of increasing the transport capacity by Transnet SOC Ltd. from the Sishen mining area is under investigation. This involves an increase from the previous 60 to 88 million tons of iron ore concentrate per year in the future.
According to the South African Ministry of Trade and Industry, the port location offers ideal conditions for companies from the oil and gas sector to settle in as well as for services in the field of shipbuilding. For this purpose the government decided to build the Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone (IDZ). On October 31, 2013, the IDZ began its official operations in the presence of President Jacob Zuma and Prime Minister of Western Cape Helen Zille . Within the framework of the country's industrial development policy, the IDZ von Saldanha Bay occupies a prominent position, as the port and its surroundings have contributed to South Africa's export balance for years.
Naval training site
In connection with the participation of the South African Union in the events of World War II , the first structures of what would later become an independent South African Navy emerged. In 1942 the South African Seaward Defense Force and a fleet of anti-mine vehicles were created. The warlike threat to the port of Cape Town prompted the search for an alternative berth for ships of all types and purposes. The choice fell on Saldanha Bay , where a military control center was built to protect the bay. Members of the South African Women's Auxiliary Naval Services (SWANS), a unit voluntarily serving women took over the tasks of the control center and the mine detection .
All posts and bases used by the British Navy passed into the control of the SA Navy on June 14, 1944 . In Saldanha, the independent training of South African marines began with the HMSAS Field Marshall Smuts , which was moved to the Salisbury Island naval base in the port of Durban in 1948 . However, as early as 1951, a naval training center started operating again in Saldanha. The Naval and Marine High School facility began with 44 students. The base available was called SAS Drommedaris and later, in 1956, was named SAS Saldanha .
In 1957 another training center was added just a short distance west of SAS Saldanha ( SAS :) . The South African Military Academy ( Academy :) was located on the northern slope of Malgaskop. In summary, the two military locations on the outskirts of the port city of Saldanha are referred to as the Saldanha Military Area .
In May 1989, the naval management upgraded the SAS Saldanha site to the Naval Base ( naval base ). In the course of the following year, the SAS Saldanha Naval Training Base lost this status as part of structural adjustments in the armed forces, and SAS Saldanha became a pure training unit again, which it has remained until now. Since then it has been the most important training center for the South African Navy.
There is also a base of the 4 Special Forces Regiment in the bay , which is located north of the Postberg area of the West Coast National Park and is located on the Rietbaai near Meeu Island.
Other facilities
In the area of the fishing port and not far from the naval training center, there is a commercial training facility for safety issues in civil shipping and port operations:
- Training for offshore gas and oil production
- Fire fighting and fire prevention, survival techniques, safety issues
- First aid
- Training on the basis of the STCW Convention.
Web links
- Transnet National Ports Authority: Port of Saldanha . on www.transnetnationalportsauthority.net (English)
- Transnet Limited: Phase 2 expansion. Port of Saldanha Environmental Scoping Report . on www.transnet.net (English; PDF; 981 kB)
- Satellite image of the port . on www.worldportsource.com (English)
- Illustrations of ore storage and loading technology . on www.projects.gibb.co.za (English; PDF; 1.4 MB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ TNPA. www.transnetnationalportsauthority.net (English)
- ↑ TNPA. Overview. on www.transnetnationalportsauthority.net (English)
- ↑ Saldanha Bay . on www. ports.co.za (English)
- ↑ a b c Port of Saldanha: Proposed Expansion of Existing Iron Ore Terminal. Background Information for Public Participation, July 2013 . on www.projects.gibb.co.za (English; PDF; 8.3 MB), containing some detailed images
- ↑ a b Saldanha History . on weskusmarine.co.za (English)
- ↑ Republic of South Africa: Saldanha Bay Harbor Construction Act with amendments. at www.enviroleg.co.za (English; PDF; 26 kB)
- ^ Republic of South Africa: Transport Laws Repeal Act. Act No. 10 of 2010 . on www.parliament.gov.za ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English; PDF; 16 kB)
- ↑ a b c d ISIZA - Construction for Development Magazine: Saldanhabay - Bringing Energy to the Western Cape . Report from October 17, 2011 on www.isiza.co.za ( Memento of the original from January 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ D. Zwemmer, J. Van 't Hof: The construction of Saldanha Bay Harbor . 1979, abstract on www.sabinet.co.za (English)
- ↑ Cornel Truter: Route 27 West Coast South Africa. The Sishen-Saldanha Railway Line . on www.route27sa.com (English)
- ↑ a b Transnet Freight Rail: Export Iron Ore Line Milestones . on www.transnetfreightrail-tfr.net (English; PDF; 299 kB)
- ^ SA Department of Water Affairs: Black Mountain Mine / Aggeneys . at www.dwaf.gov.za (English)
- ^ Arcelor Mittal: The story of Saldanha Works . on www.arcelormittalsa.com (English)
- ↑ a b c d Port of Saldanha Overview . on www.transnetnationalportsauthority.net (English)
- ^ Port of Saldanha . on www.transmarineshipping.com (English)
- ^ Assmang: Inland Transport . on www.assmang.co.za ( memento of the original from March 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ Sishen - Saldanha Iron Ore Corridor Capacity Expansion. on www.projects.gibb.co.za (English)
- ↑ 10 Potential Special Economic Zones Have Been Identified, Davies . on www.dti.gov.za (English)
- ^ Minister Welcomes Designation Plans for Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone . on www.westerncape.gov.za (English)
- ^ Government of Western Cape: Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone to Stimulate Growth and Jobs . on www.westerncape.gov.za (English)
- ^ Saldanha Bay Municipality: Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) . on www.sbm.gov.za (English)
- ↑ a b c SA Navy: History of SAS Saldanha . at www.navy.mil.za (English)
- ^ A b Jacques Bezuidenhout: The Background Radiation and Exposure Levels at Various South African West Coast Military Units . In: Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol. 42, No. 2, 2014, pp. 164–176, online at www.ajol.info (English)
- ^ Lindy Heinecken, Chris Merts: Standards, Training and The SAS Saldanha . In: African Security Review, Vol. 4, Edition 3 (1995), p. 32 ff. (English)
- ^ PMT Inc .: Project Maritime Training . on www.maritimetraining.co.za (English)
further reading
- D. Zwemmer, J. Van't Hof: The construction of Saldanha Bay Harbor. In: Civil Engineer in South Africa / Siviele Engineer in Suid-Afrika. Vol. 21 (1979), Issue 10, pp. 238-240.