Namibia’s president, Hage Geingob has dedicated to the nation a new US $200 million port terminal at Walvis Bay, that will double the country’s port capacity from 350,000 containers to 750,000 per year. The new terminal is built on a 40- hectare platform reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean. With the commissioning of the new terminal, Namibia is in the league of Australia, Brazil, Dubai and the Netherlands, which have reclaimed land for port expansion.
The terminal increases Namport’s assets to N$7,6 billion dollars. It is also a step towards the port’s effort towards becoming a logistics hub for the land locked southern African region. Zambia, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana, and Zimbabwe are among the main land linked, now sea-linked markets for seaborne transit cargo through the port of Walvis Bay. The commissioning of the port, built by China would also help realizing the huge potentials of the Southern African Development Community, an economically happening place.
The completion of the container terminal expansion puts the country on a firm trajectory towards realizing the dream of transforming Namibia into an international logistics hub. A report titled ‘State of Logistics’ was also released by the Walvis Bay Corridor Group last year, which listed out that the cargo handling facilities can go up to over a million in the future.
A dedicated cruise liner berth and a marina breakwater are the other attractions of the newly developed terminal. Walvis Bay has been handling around 3,000 vessels and six million tonnes of cargo every year. The building of new terminal entailed a cost of US$ 400 million. The terminal when the country inherited at reintegration of Namibia was a fishing harbor and now has been transformed into international logistics hub.
China Harbour Engineering Co. Ltd was actively involved in the construction of of the new terminal. Over the five years of construction, the company employed more than 2,000 Namibians and provided on-site training to over 800 local employees who now have acquired new skills in the job market. Before the actual commissioning of the new terminal, Namport’s will be shut down from August 17 to 24 for the migration from the old to the new terminal. The old terminal will now be used as a multi-purpose harbor for non-containerized cargo.
