Manganese exports increases
Manganese exports from South Africa to China have led to a major increase in the Namibian Ports Authority’s throughput at Lüderitz, Namport marketing specialist Cecil Kamuningene has said.
Kamupingene said before the exports, throughput at Lüderitz stood at 400 000 tonnes annually and that is expected to increase to 900 000, or 55 percent, by the end of the current financial year.
Other cargo exported through the port at the harbour town includes fish, zinc and diamonds.
The manganese is transported from the Tshipi é Ntle manganese mine in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province to Lüderitz via the Ariamsvlei Border Post before being exported.
Kamupingene said the Covid-19 pandemic has however affected the transportation and exporting of manganese in terms of the application of Covid-19 regulations.
“The regulations created a cross-border presentation conjunction when it comes to trucks entering Namibia. Equally, the vessel that had to dock here to load the manganese had to sail for 14 days and this caused delays and impacts in terms of our turnaround times and the monthly throughput capacity. Indeed, Covid-19 had an impact on our operations,” he noted.
He was however quick to point out that Namport and the Ministry of Health found common ground to ensure that operations did not come to a complete standstill.
Revenue
“We came to an agreement that the vessels could start loading the manganese while we wait for the results and not sail for 14 days. That went a long way and we are really grateful towards the ministry as it really understood the importance of business and the economy. With that, we could have two vessel shipments per month which translates to 60 000 tonnes per month,” said Kamupingene.
He went to say about N$ 500 million in revenue has circulated in the local economy since the start of the manganese exports last September.
“The exportation and transportation of manganese has a chain and everyone in that chain is able to have a piece of the pie, be it TransNamib, truck owners, retail outlets and even service stations along the route. That is what corridor development is about,” he said.
With regards to challenges, Kamupingene noted that the Lüderitz harbour is not deep enough and larger loads are thus not possible.
“Here we just load 30 000 tonnes, if we load more on to a vessel it can sink, so the vessel continues along the route to pick up another 30 000 tonnes in South Africa and that makes our route very expensive. We have to find alternative ways so that our vessels are filled here and can go straight to China to reduce the cost of transportation,” he added. - Nampa
Kamupingene said before the exports, throughput at Lüderitz stood at 400 000 tonnes annually and that is expected to increase to 900 000, or 55 percent, by the end of the current financial year.
Other cargo exported through the port at the harbour town includes fish, zinc and diamonds.
The manganese is transported from the Tshipi é Ntle manganese mine in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province to Lüderitz via the Ariamsvlei Border Post before being exported.
Kamupingene said the Covid-19 pandemic has however affected the transportation and exporting of manganese in terms of the application of Covid-19 regulations.
“The regulations created a cross-border presentation conjunction when it comes to trucks entering Namibia. Equally, the vessel that had to dock here to load the manganese had to sail for 14 days and this caused delays and impacts in terms of our turnaround times and the monthly throughput capacity. Indeed, Covid-19 had an impact on our operations,” he noted.
He was however quick to point out that Namport and the Ministry of Health found common ground to ensure that operations did not come to a complete standstill.
Revenue
“We came to an agreement that the vessels could start loading the manganese while we wait for the results and not sail for 14 days. That went a long way and we are really grateful towards the ministry as it really understood the importance of business and the economy. With that, we could have two vessel shipments per month which translates to 60 000 tonnes per month,” said Kamupingene.
He went to say about N$ 500 million in revenue has circulated in the local economy since the start of the manganese exports last September.
“The exportation and transportation of manganese has a chain and everyone in that chain is able to have a piece of the pie, be it TransNamib, truck owners, retail outlets and even service stations along the route. That is what corridor development is about,” he said.
With regards to challenges, Kamupingene noted that the Lüderitz harbour is not deep enough and larger loads are thus not possible.
“Here we just load 30 000 tonnes, if we load more on to a vessel it can sink, so the vessel continues along the route to pick up another 30 000 tonnes in South Africa and that makes our route very expensive. We have to find alternative ways so that our vessels are filled here and can go straight to China to reduce the cost of transportation,” he added. - Nampa
Kommentaar
Republikein
Geen kommentaar is op hierdie artikel gelaat nie