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Port of Cape Town
South Africa's Port of Cape Town is ideally situated along one the busiest trade routes in the world. As such, Cape Town harbor has and will always be of strategic and economic importance to the country. Fresh fruit is the largest amount of cargo handled here. Other economic activity at the port of Cape Town includes fishing, ship repair and maintenance for the West Africa oil industry.
Cape Town has been an important port since the 17th century. The city was established back in 1652 by Jan van Riebeeck who set-up a victualing station for the Dutch East India Company. Over the years the Port of Cape Town has grown to include container terminals, fruit terminals, a repair quay, a tanker basin and yachting marina.
Cape Town Harbor is located at Latitude 33 ° 54' S and Longitude 18 ° 26' E. That makes the port about 120 n.miles to the north west of Africa's most southern point, Cape Agulhas. The port of Cape Town is operational 24 hours a day, every day of the week. The entrance channel is a depth of -15.9m Chart datum. The Duncan Dock entrance is -15.4m deep and 180m wide. Ben Schoeman Dock entrance is -14m deep. Pilotage is compulsory at 1.6 miles and 155º from the breakwater. Strong winds in the between the months of April to September can cause disruptions. The port of Cape Town has a Voith Schneider tug fleet.
In total the port of Cape Town has 34 berths. Sturrock Dry Dock has a capacity of 45.1m width by 369.6m length and can be sectioned into two parts of different lengths. Victoria Basin's Robinson Dry Dock has an entrance depth of 7.9m and entrance top of 20.7m with a length of 161.2m. Ships up to 61m and 1 806 tonnes can make use of the synchrolift and repair quay. Victoria and Alfred Basins can handle several size ships including passenger cruise ships stopping of in Cape Town. Cape Town harbor's Container terminal has 5 deep-sea berths as well as 2 coastal container berths. The Multi Purpose Terminal deals with fruit, grains, timber, steel, scrap, paper, coal and so forth. Cape Town port has fine rail and roadways for connections to inland destinations. Bunkering points in the port of Cape Town supply marine fuel oil and so forth. Also located at the port is a yacht club, marina and the NSRI (sea rescue team) base. Cape Town's port is certainly doing much for trade in the country and will continue to do so for years to come.