INCREASED BUSINESS CONFIDENCE ATTRACTS NEW CONTAINER LINE TO THE PORT OF WALVIS BAY

Maruba Container Lines, who are represented by Novaship Namibia (Pty) Ltd in Walvis Bay, a member of the Walvis Bay Corridor Group, have announced a new feeder service which is calling at the Port of Walvis Bay. This service originates from the Far East and calls at major Chinese ports such as Shanghai, Ningbo, Qingdao, Xiamen and Shekou and connects to the main ocean carrier vessel in Port Kelang, Malaysia, on a weekly basis, to Durban, for transshipment into Walvis Bay, and further onto the ports of Douala, Libreville, and Port Noire. The other ports along this route will be called on an inducement basis. According to Maruba Container Lines, “The importance of Walvis Bay as an import, export and transshipment hub to the rest of West Africa was realized due to well developed infrastructure of Namibia in general, as well as the Port of Walvis Bay. When viewed in general, the Port of Walvis Bay is a leader in delivering service and space availability for transshipment volumes, offering little to no congestion in terms of berthing delays and cargo operations, making it a truly cost efficient port.” The majority of the consignments includes Chinese chemical, electronic goods, textiles destined for Angola, as well as machinery, second hand vehicles, trucks, and so forth. The Maruba feeder service is multipurpose service, and includes break bulk and containers which is ideal to accommodate project cargo. With the increase in direct shipping connections to the Port of Walvis Bay it has become important that more feeder connections are being established at the Port of Walvis Bay to move the large number of transshipment containers between the Port of Walvis Bay and other ports in the region. During the past four years the Port of Walvis Bay has increased its role as a transshipment port serving the markets of Southern and West Africa. At the same time the Port of Walvis Bay has capitalized on the increased international direct sailings to this port to grow the corridor volumes serving the hinterland such as Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gauteng Region in South Africa, Zambia as well as Zimbabwe.