Walvis Bay becomes top fuel stop for large ships forced to sail around the Cape
NEWS24The Namibian port of Walvis Bay or Port Louis in Mauritius are “top options” for filling up if there’s a need en route, shipping giant A.P. Moller - Maersk said in a reply to questions. The company still prefers to bunker at the start or end of a route.
Walvis Bay is a convenient stop because it requires minimal deviation by shipping lines, according to Simone Piredda, a senior trader at Monjasa. Initially, it was mainly container lines re-routing around the Cape of Good Hope, but they have been followed by tankers, bulkers and other cargo vessels.
Those detours come at a cost: going the long way around Africa can add roughly 8 000 kilometers to voyages.
Trafigura’s TFG Marine advertises on its website that it’s “on hand to provide fuel supplies to all vessels diverted from the Suez Canal,” and lists operations in Walvis Bay and Algoa Bay in South Africa.
“TFG Marine continues to serve its clients in East, West and South Africa,” a spokesperson for the company said in an emailed reply, while declining to comment on volume projections.
Transnet provided an initial estimate of lost revenue as a result of the critical situation at the Durban port, which is vital for South Africa’s economy as it handles about 60% of the country’s container volumes/traffic. The port facilitates the import and export of vehicles, agricultural goods, minerals and general goods.
Delays and congestion at the port worsened from October, with Transnet blaming adverse weather conditions in Durban for causing its aging port infrastructure (various grades of cranes) to break down even further. Some of these facilities have reached the end of their 15-year life cycle, the Daily Maverick reported last year November.
Earle Peters, the managing executive of Transnet Port Terminals (the division at Transnet that operates other ports in Richards Bay, Cape Town, Saldanha Bay, Gqeberha, East London and Mossel Bay), stressed that the situation at the port remains fluid and changes daily.
-additional reporting by Daily Maverick