The Cape Town Multi-Purpose Terminal (MPT) has increased volume throughput in the agricultural bulk sector by 43% in the year-to-date.
In January, the terminal handled 25 704 t of agricultural bulk commodities, an increase of 72% compared with the same period last year. The Cape Town MPT handles, among other things, import commodities such as wheat, barley and grain. The terminal also handles bulk, breakbulk and containers.
“The Agri-bulk sector, which forms part of our breakbulk offering, has done really well this current financial year. We owe this achievement to our employees who apply a customer-centric approach in everything they do.
“For us, serving customers is a business imperative and having our employees rallying behind this is crucial,” says Western Cape Terminals acting managing executive Oscar Borchards.
In November 2023, the Cape Town MPT introduced a two-berth operation for containers with the aim of increasing volume throughput and serving as additional capacity for the Cape Town Container Terminal by providing a complementary system.
Since the introduction of the two-berth operation, the terminal’s performance has been steady, with some months recording “outstanding achievements.”
In February, the Cape Town MPT’s container sector achieved 6 540 moves, against 5 555 in the same month last year.
“While our container sector business performance is slightly above target, we are gradually seeing a good shift and ours is to keep identifying opportunities for improvement,” adds Borchards.
The Cape Town MPT forms part of a network of 19 port terminals operated by Transnet Port Terminals (TPT). TPT is South Africa’s leading terminal operator responsible for loading and offloading cargo aboard vessels calling at the seven South African ports.