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Port

Introduction

The Saldanha Bay Iron Ore Terminal is situated about 140km northwest of the city of Cape Town, in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The terminal is run and managed by the Transnet Port Terminals division of the Government owned, Transnet Limited, which was established in 2000, when Transnet's then single port division, Portnet, was divided into operations and landlord businesses namely, SAPO (Transnet port terminals) and National Port Authority (TNPA).

Brief History – Saldanha Bay

Dutch Explorer Van Spilbergen discovered Saldanha Bay in 1601. However, it was not until 1969 that feasibility studies were conducted for possible iron ore exportation. The construction of the harbour began in 1973 and the first iron ore consignment was exported in September 1976 on the vessel MV Fern Sea. To date more than 600 million tons of iron ore was exported through Bulk Terminal.

General

Saldanha is the largest deep-water port in South Africa with a draft restriction at high tide of 21,5m and can accommodate Panamax and Cape size vessels with deadweight of approximately 300 000t. The Terminal loads between 16-20 vessels per month at an average consignment size of 150 000t per vessel.

Customers

The Terminal's main customers are Kumba Iron Ore Ltd, Assmang Ltd. The Terminal is responsible for off-loading, stockpiling and reclaiming of iron ore, as well as the loading of bulk vessels with iron ore material to export.

The Bulk Terminal Saldanha recently embarked on an expansion project to increase its capacity from 41 million tons per annum to 47 million tons per annum. Currently the terminal exports about 30 million tons of iron ore per annum and off-loads 33 million tons of iron ore for the same period.