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History
The idea of Durban as a port dates back to 1824 when the first
European settlers made a landing with the intention of setting up a
trading post.
The Bay of Natal (Durban Bay) was one of the few natural
harbours available along the east coast of southern Africa between
Algoa Bay and Delagoa Bay (now Maputo Bay).
Vasco da Gama is said to have sighted the Bay on Christmas Day,
1497, when he hove to off the Bluff with his three small ships San
Gabriel, San Raphael and Berrio, before naming the land Natal as a
mark of respect for the Nativity. However subsequent studies by
Professor Eric Axelson have suggested da Gama's 'discovery' was
actually further south in the region of the present Port St
Johns.
A later paper by Brian Stuckenberg, director emeritus of the Natal
Museum and an entomologist by training, undertook extensive
research into certain aspects of the Portuguese voyages of
discovery and concluded that da Gama was indeed off the
present KwaZulu Natal coast on Christmas Day 1497
(Natalia Vol.27 pp 19-29).
History appears to have decreed that it was while off the KZN
coast and not Pondoland that the Portuguese named the land they saw
'Natal' in honour of the nativity.
Since then ships called sporadically over several centuries, and
who knows which honest merchantman or perhaps pirate ship sheltered
behind the protection of the Bluff, that wooded peninsular that
forms a dramatic landmark of present Durban.
First harbour master
The first harbour master was appointed in either 1839 or 1840
(true records do not exist) so perhaps Durban as a port should be
considered from this time. Once the notorious bar - a sandbar
across the entrance channel - had been 'conquered' (a story in its
own right) Durban went on to rapidly become Africa's busiest
general cargo port and home to one of the largest and busiest
container terminals in the Southern Hemisphere.
Situated at Longitude 31º 02'E and Latitude 29º 52'S, the port is
680 nautical miles north-east of Cape Agulhas and occupies the
natural expanse of Durban Bay - an area of 1850ha, with the water
area being 892ha in extent at high tide and 679ha at low. From the
Point to the opposite side of the entrance channel on the Bluff is
21km, with the emerging Point waterfront development and central
business district to the north and northeast, Maydon Wharf in the
west, the Bayhead ship repair area in the south and the Bluff
Peninsular forming the southeast.
Durban Bay also served a different kind of purpose in the 1930s
until late in the 1950s when it was used as a base for flying
boats. First it was the graceful Short C class of Imperial Airways,
for Durban was the terminus of the first commercial air route
between South Africa and Europe. During World War II Short
Sunderlands and Catalina flying boats took over reconnaissance
duties flying from their base at Bayhead, which lasted well into
the 1950s.
The port has a total of 59 effective berths excluding those used by
fishing vessels and ship repair. The bay also has an inner
anchorage. A single buoy mooring at Isipingo on the southeast side
of the Bluff caters for very large crude carriers (VLCC) that are
too large to enter the port. Proposals have been made to extend the
harbour deeper into the Bayhead headwaters where several large
container terminals will be built but this remains under
consideration, as does another proposal to create a new port south
of the existing harbour on the site of the Durban International
Airport at Isipingo, when that facility relocates to La Mercy in
early 2010.
A total of 302km of rail tracks extends throughout the port area
along with several major marshalling yards.
The port of Durban performs a critical role within the city of
Durban as an employer of people. It services its own industrial and
commercial region (the second largest in SA), in addition to much
of SA's hinterland including the majority of Gauteng traffic and a
significant amount of traffic for neighbouring countries.
In response to demand the port of Durban is maximising and creating
more container handling facilities (see above) including a second
container terminal on Pier One which commenced operations in 2007,
but space will continue to be reserved for breakbulk and bulk
cargoes. The port is served with excellent rail and road links
to Gauteng in the west and points south and north.
Salisbury Island, which was formerly a full naval base until it was
downgraded in 2002, now hosts a small naval station, which
frequently plays host to visiting warships of the South African and
foreign navies. The remainder of the Salisbury Island area
formerly occupied as a naval base is under consideration as an
extension to the Pier 1 Container Terminal.
Port Limitations:
The port of Durban operates 24 hours a day 365 days a year. The
entrance channel has a depth of 12.8m from Chart Datum. The channel
width has been widened to 222m at its narrowest
point. The entrance channel is now 19m deep in the outer
entrance shallowing to 16.5m draught in the inner
channel.
Prior to the widening and deepening of the entrance channel ships
during daylight were supposedly restricted to 243.8m length with a
maximum width of 35m and a draught of 11.9m, or 12.2m according to
tide and harbour master's clearance. Larger vessels have
been common and ships up to 300m length and 37m beam are
regular callers in Durban. Night restrictions were for a ship
length of 200m and a beam of 26m, maximum draught of
11.6m. The harbour master has to be consulted for
permission regarding larger vessels.
The above limitations have been redrawn since the harbour widening
and deepening exercise was completed on 31 March 2010 - please
check with Harbour Master's office for latest limitations.
The largest ships to have entered Durban harbour were in the region
of 230,000-dwt but even larger vessels are catered for in the outer
anchorage. On two occasions in recent years the largest vessel
afloat, the 564,650-dwt ULCC tanker Jahre Viking (now a FPSO in the
Persian Gulf), which has a length of 458m and a beam of
69m underwent repairs and a survey while at anchor at the
Outer Anchorage off Durban.
Pilotage is compulsory for all vessels from a point three n.miles
northeast of the port entrance, with a helicopter performing most
pilot transfers, backed up by pilot boat service when the
helicopter is unavailable. Navigation is subject to VTS (vessels
tracking service system) controlled from the Millennium Tower on
the Bluff including all shipping movements inside port limits. Tug
assistance is required. Draught within the port varies according to
location.
Marine Craft:
The port operates a fleet of tugs owned and operated by the
National Ports Authority (NPA). Six of these are Schottel type with
bollard pull between 34t and 41t - Umzumbe (ex Otto Buhr),
Umsunduzi (ex Dupel Erasmus), Umvoti (ex Bertie Groenewald), Nonoti
(ex Jannie Oelofsen), Inyalazi (ex Piet Aucamp), and Umhlali (ex
Bart Grove). Later type tugs of a new series of
Voith Schneider 49t bollard pull tugs which were built at
SA Shipyards in Durban began to be introduced from 2001. The
two stationed at Durban are named uThukela and Mkhuze. Seven
additional Voith Schneider-propulsion tugs of between 65 and 70 ton
bollard pull are currently under construction at SA Shipyards
in Durban, of which several will be placed in service in
Durban.
Each tug is maintained to SAMSA class 8 standard and is equipped
for fire fighting and salvage. The fleet handles in excess of 800
ship movements each month and four tugs are usually on duty during
daylight hours and at least two at night. The port also employs one
work boat/tug of the Tern class, Royal Tern, which has a bollard
pull of 18.7 tons. An Agusta A109 K2 'HPS' twin-engine 8-seat
helicopter operated by Balmoral Maintenance Services provides
pilotage services. Two diesel-powered pilot boats
named Lufafa and Jujosi, which were built by Veecraft in Cape
Town in 2009, operate when the helicopter service is
unavailable.
Dredging is performed by the NPA on an ongoing basis in the port
and immediately outside the entrance to counter the littoral drift
that would otherwise recreate the infamous Bar across the entrance
channel. The major work is conducted by a trailing suction
hopper dredger named Piper (ex RE Jones), with the dredged
sand deposited into a reclamation point on the northern
breakwater, from where it is dispersed by the municipality along
Durban's northern beaches. Piper loads 2,500 cubic metres at a
time. The Richards Bay dredger Ingwenya often assists in Durban. A
new suction hopper dredger is currently under construction in
Europe and is expected to enter service early in 2011.
Other harbour dredgers include the bed leveller dredger named
Impisi (ex LL Varley), which operates by dragging a plough across
the seabed to move accumulated silt against the wharfside into the
adjacent channel. The channels are kept clear by means of the
grab dredger, Crane (ex JF Craig), which uses a grab attached to a
crane on the vessel. Crane (named after the bird) and Piper or
Ingwenya also operate at East London and Port Elizabeth as
required.
Hydrographic Survey Vessels used at the Port of Durban are the
Ingwegwe and the Swift.
Durban has two floating cranes. Indlovu has a lifting capacity
of 235 tonnes at 10m and 125t from 24m. The smaller Imvubu is
privately owned by Elgin Brown & Hamer and has a
lifting capacity of 60 tonnes at 6.1m or 40.6t at 16.2m from the
outboard edge.
The port employs a number of launches and cargo punts including a
100+ passenger harbour boat named Isiponono, which is used for
trade and business tours of the port. A pollution boat named Udonti
also serves the port. Several private companies provide commercial
diving services and the port also maintains a fully equipped
diving team.
The NSRI, which has moved into a modern station base at the Point,
operates several deep-sea and smaller rescuecraft.
Port Volumes:
The port of Durban handles the greatest volume of sea-going
traffic of any port in southern Africa. For the 2008/09 financial
year ended 31 March 2009, the Port of Durban handled a total
of 4,554 sea-going ships with a gross tonnage
of 114,723,266 or about 38 percent of the ships calling at all
South African ports.
Cargo handled during the fiscal year 2008/09 amounted to
74,683,597 tonnes, which included oil and petroleum products
and containers.
Total tonnage handled by the port (including a calculation for
containers) constituted 42,559,842t of
imports, 23,516,461t of exports and8,607,293t of
transhipment cargo giving a total tonnage for the port of74,683,597
tonnes.
Bulk cargo handled at the port
in 2008/09 was 34,205,900t, of which imports
were 27,068,586t, exports were 7,055,419t, and
transhipments totalled 81,895t.
Breakbulk cargo totalled 5,912,756 tonnes, of which
imports were2,690,057t, exports 3,033,254t, and
transhipments 189,445t.
Container volumes (2.56 million TEUs) totalled 34,564,941
tonnes (see below).
The combined Durban container
terminals handled 2,560,366 TEUs(twenty foot equivalents)
during 2008/09 of which imports were 948,237 exports
were 994,651 and 617,478 TEU were transhipped. Included
in the above were 40,900 TEUs that were shipped coastwise.
Containers handled at Durban represented 67,4 percent of the total
number of containers handled at South African ports.
The Durban Car Terminal - the country's largest import
and export facility for the motor industry - handled 372,557
motor units, of which 184,511 were imports, 182,091 exports and
5,955 were transhipments.
Note: The latest monthly statistics for the port can be found in
the general News section of PORTS & SHIPS, on a monthly basis
(usually around the 8th to 10th of each month) with the annual
figures publsihed early inJanuary (calendar year) and April (fiscal
year). Readers should make use of the built-in Google
search engine (top right side of each page) to locate - key in the
name of month or year required followed by the word
statistics.
Port Facilities:
The port of Durban operates on a common user basis and consists
of five business units managed by Transnet Port Terminals or
TPT [formerly known as SA Port Operations (SAPO)] -
Durban Container Terminal (Africa's busiest), Pier 1 Container
Terminal, Multi Purpose Terminal (also known as the City Terminal),
Durban Car Terminal (three berths), and Maydon Wharf
Terminal.
There are a number of other terminals in the port which are managed
and operated by private companies, including the Bluff Coaling
Terminal known as Bulk Connections, the large Island View oil and
petroleum complex, often referred to as the Cutler Complex or
simply as Island View, the Fresh Produce Terminal at the T-Jetty
and another fruit terminal at Maydon Wharf, the Sugar Terminal and
Wood Chip Terminal on Maydon Wharf, SA Bulk Terminals
(Rennies) on both Maydon Wharf and Island View in addition to a
number of other private facilities mostly at Maydon Wharf.
Terminals: grain, sugar, citrus, passenger
The port has a well-equipped passenger terminal at N-berth on
the T-Jetty for the convenience of cruise ships, which operate
mostly during the summer months between November and May. During
the summer each year MSC and Starlight Cruises base a cruise
ship for all-summer cruising at Durban, operating to the
Mozambique and Indian Ocean island destinations. The 'resident'
cruise ship during the 2009/10 season will be the MSC SINFONIA but
during the 2010 FIFA World Soccer Cup tournament several cruise
ships will remain in Durban to be used as floating
hotels.
These and other cruise ships make use of one or more berths as
required and at times the port can have as many as three cruise
ships in port together. An attractive Harbour Expo Market is
mounted in the airconditioned N-Shed while cruise ships are in port
(contact +27 083 434 8365 for details). Long-term plans foresee a
new cruise terminal being built at A berth on the Point, near the
Point Waterfront.
Extensive ship repair facilities consist of a graving
dock divided by two compartments with a total length of
352.04m and a width of 33.52m at the top, split into an inner dock
of 138.68m and an outer dock of 206.9m and serviced by up to five
electric cranes from 50t to 10t. Not all the cranes are in use or
serviceable. Emptying time for the graving dock is 4 hours. There
are proposals to build a private dry dock at the Dormac Marine
shipyard.
In addition to the above mentioned dock the port of Durban has
three floating docks - one operated by Transnet NPA with an overall
length of 109m, a width of 23.34m and a displaced lifting capacity
of 4,500 tonnes, serviced by two 5-tonne capacity cranes. The
second floating dock, known as Eldock, is operated by
Messrs Elgin Brown & Hamer and is currently the only
privately owned floating dock in South Africa (Elgin operates
two similar floating docks at Walvis Bay, known as Namdock 1 and
Namdock 2). Eldock has a length of 155m, a width of 23.5m and a
lifting capacity of 8,500t. The third floating dock, a smaller unit
of 50m length is due to arrive in Durban during June and will be
utilised initially as a launch vessel for the fleet of new
tugs being built at SA Shipyards. This dock may be introduce
for small ship repair at a later date.
Bayhead has two general repair quays in addition to several
privately operated and fully equipped repair quays. Two bunkering
companies - Smit Amandla and Unical provide bunker barging
services with modern double-hulled barges but no bunkers are served
outside the port.
There is an extensive safe anchorage outside the port for vessels
waiting for berthing or for orders.
Yachting marinas
Durban has three marinas for yachting purposes - the main marina
opposite the Esplanade, served by the Point Yacht Club and Royal
Natal Yacht Club, the Wilson's Wharf marina used predominantly by
motor craft and the Bluff Yacht Club facility in the Silt Canal
near Bayhead. The Silt Canal also houses a number of other marine
activity clubs. A new marina is envisaged for the area immediately
outside the harbour entrance (between the North Pier and Vetch's
Pier) and has recently received approval from an
environmental impact assessment and regulatory process.
Construction is expected to commence during 2010.
The port and city authorities also propose a combined marina
development in the area between Wilson's Wharf and the Tug Basin
(Bat Centre) which if it proceeds would be developed as a
waterfront.
A large number of other recreational activities take place in
Durban Bay including canoeing and kayaking, parasailing, fishing
from boats and bird watching at the Heritage Site (mangrove
swamps). Public sight-seeing is available from a variety of
ferries and launches operating such services in Durban Bay.
These ferries may be located at Wilson's Wharf, the Durban Marina
and near the Bat Centre - readers shoulds consult
the Ports & Ships MARITIME SERVICES DIRECTORY for
details.
The port has a full range of ship chandling and
stevedoring available - details of all these are also
available in the Ports & Ships Maritime Services
Directory.
In addition Durban has a interesting Maritime Museum located near
the Bat Centre (opposite Aliwal Street) which includes several
tugs, a minesweeper and other large and small exhibits. There is a
small charge for entry and parking is available.
Reference: http://www.ports.co.za/durban-harbour.php