The Port of Wrenhaven has reported its busiest quarter on record, handling just over 182,000 standard containers as the long-awaited deep-water berth at Asher Point came into full use. The figure is 14 per cent higher than the same period last year and beats the previous record, set before the berth works began, by roughly 9,000 boxes.
The new quay, dredged to a depth of 16.5 metres, allows vessels of up to 18,000 containers to come alongside at any state of the tide. Until now the largest ships had to wait in Greyling Bay for high water or transfer part of their cargo at larger ports further along the coast, adding a day or more to delivery times for importers in the city.
Fiona Calloway, the port's chief executive, said three shipping lines had added Wrenhaven as a direct call since the berth opened, two of them on routes from Southeast Asia. Four electric ship-to-shore cranes, each standing 85 metres high at full reach, were commissioned earlier this year and are now working around the clock.
We used to tell customers their containers would arrive when the tide allowed. Now we can give them a time and keep to it.
Pressure moves inland
The surge has exposed bottlenecks beyond the quay. Hauliers say queues at the Asher Point gate have stretched to 90 minutes at peak times, and the rail spur to the Eastmoor freight yard is running at close to capacity with eleven trains a day. Declan Pryor, who runs a 40-lorry haulage firm in Eastmoor, said drivers were losing a full delivery slot on some shifts.
182,400 containers handled in the quarter, up 14 per cent
Three new direct shipping services since the berth opened
Rail share of inland movements now 31 per cent
The record has also lifted employment at the terminal. The port has taken on 140 extra staff over the past year, most of them crane operators, lashers and planners, and has opened a training centre in Harbourside where recruits practise on a full-size simulator before working on the quay. Around half of the new hires live within five kilometres of Asher Point, according to the port.
The port says a booking system for lorry arrivals will be extended to all hauliers next spring, and it is in talks with the national rail operator about a twelfth daily path. Ms Calloway added that the berth had been built with room for a second phase, though no decision on further investment would be taken until volumes had held for at least a year.