9.0 SHIP REPAIR
Ship Repair - Port of Cape Town
Capacities and Capabilities Sector
Impact on NPA (Needs Analysis)
Quays, Berths and Craneage
Recommended Actions for NPA
46

9.1 Ship Repair – Port of Cape Town
The Port of Cape Town plays a considerable role in the regional economy. It is one of the largest deepwater harbours in Africa, able to handle the largest container vessels afloat, and, as a wide-mouth port, can handle extraordinary vessels - such as the steady flow of oil rigs which use the port for maintenance and repairs. It is a sophisticated ship repair centre with the ship repair industry being worth approximately R500 million per annum to the Cape economy.
The port is situated on one of the world's most important trade routes and will always have importance for that reason alone.
Cape Town is also an important container port, second in South Africa only to
Durban, and handles the largest amount of fresh fruit.
Fishing has a significant place in the activity of the port, affecting the ship repair industry in particular, with large Asian fishing fleets using Cape Town as a transhipment logistics and repair base for much of the year.
An increasing number of oil supply vessels and rigs use Cape Town for repairs and refurbishment and the ship repair industry is vibrant and healthy. Most importantly the
Port of Cape Town is geographically positioned well to attract the West Africa oil business, in particular the Angola business.
The port of Cape Town handled 3,990 vessels during 2001, of which 2,297 were ocean going, 132 coasters, 1,326 fishing vessels and 235 miscellaneous vessels, for a total gross tonnage of 140,283,427.
9.2 Capacities and Capabilities of Sector
Historically ship repair facilities and capabilities existed from the early 1900’s in Cape
Town and thus it is a mature sector with very large capacity. All ship repair services are available in the Port of Cape Town with substantial technical capability for ship repair, upgrade and conversion work. Numerous large projects have been undertaken for various local and international Owners to support the oil and gas diamond mining industry and general repair market. A number of large collision, fire and weather damage repairs have been completed in Cape Town. Some critical underwater repairs have also been concluded using cofferdams specifically designed for the application to prevent docking larger vessels and even semi-submersible oilrigs.
Activities include all voyage repairs, dry-dockings, surveys, major refits, modifications and conversions to all types of vessel. Travelling repair squads are available for worldwide transit. Small vessel construction is also undertaken.
The industry is able to conform to all international specification and Classification
Society requirements. Repairers are able to produce 3D erection drawings, detailed fabrication and nesting drawings and as fitted drawings. Cape Town has several experienced naval architects to provide detailed design if required. In particular the industry has serviced the Oil and Gas market for many years including some major conversion projects that were completed through the joint efforts of a number of repairers to ensure timeous delivery.
9.3 Impact on NPA- Needs analysis
Three key problems have been identified in the harbour namely the delay strong south-easterly winds cause in cargo handling, the expected lack of capacity of the container terminal, and a lack of ship-repair facilities.
47

The port's ship repair facilities are also suffering severe capacity problems. Two of the major ones are in the vicinity of the V&A Waterfront and are coming under threat from the surrounding development.
The port's Syncro lift handles by far the most vessels a year but is continually booked, as is the Robinson dock. NPA planning suggested that in the past four to five years about 271 vessels have had to be been turned away from the lift. With major expansion in the West Coast diamond and oil fields there is a requirement for ship repair in Cape Town to service these growing markets.
The four star Victoria and Alfred Hotel is adjacent to the 118-year-old Robinson drydock and the five star Cape Grace overlooks the West Quay and synchrolift alongside.
These facilities now shut down at day's end whereas they used to be on the go 24 hours a day.
Relocating the 161 metre-long Robinson dry-dock is not feasible from a cost perspective. It is clear that complaints about the synchrolift will impact this facilities ability to serve the repair market. Noise, dust and paint overspray are concerns for the waterfront complexes in this area.
Now urgent calls are being made to increase the Port of Cape Town's marine engineering capacity to fully exploit business opportunities stemming from the West
African oil industry. Various plans mooted in the past have included the introduction of a floating dock, various tenders for proposals of shiplifts and the possible move of infrastructure to Saldanah Bay to cope with a huge growth in demand for maintenance and repair of vessels and rigs.
Advance bookings for dry-dock and quayside space stretch forward for months.
Larger companies involved in the industry such as DCD-Dorbyl and Globe
Engineering are busy and often find they have to wait their turn to get clients' vessels into Table Bay Harbour's limited workspaces. These contractors are jointly refusing in the order of 6 to 8 vessels per month.
The West African offshore oil industry now makes up about 65% of the work, a turnaround from the past when most business was from fishing fleets and general cargo ships. Now, however, the infrastructure bottleneck may not only limit future growth but also turn around the industry's boom.
Sturrock dry dock is constantly being filled by smaller vessels that ideally should have been accommodated on the shiplift. The result is that passing general cargo business has to be turned away. To make the Sturrock dry dock work more efficiently requires larger vessels to be accommodated.
The consensus in the industry is that Cape Town has the skills and opportunity to chart a new course in the ship repair market. But the industry needs space within which to do it.
Robinson Dry Dock, near the Two Oceans Aquarium, is fully booked for a year.
The closure of Simons Town's naval dockyard to commercial work has exacerbated the problem.
9.4 Quays, Berths and Craneage
There are 34 berths in total including lay-by berths. The port boasts extensive ship repair facilities. The main dry dock, known as Sturrock Dry Dock has an overall docking capability of 369.6m length and 45.1m width at the entrance top plus a depth of 14m. The dock may be divided into two sections of varying lengths.
48

The Robinson Dry Dock in the Victoria Basin measures 161.2m in length with an entrance top of 20.7m and a depth of 7.9m. The port also has a synchrolift capable of handling ships up to 61m in length, 15m beam and 1,806 tonnes, as well as a repair quay situated in the Duncan Dock.
The adjacent Victoria and Alfred Basins have a variety of berths available for ship and boat repair as well as berthing of smaller vessels, including facilities for passenger cruise ships. Cape Town has two main terminals, or business units for cargo handling purposes.
The Container Terminal contains five deep-sea berths (of which four are in normal use for container ships) and two coastal container berths. They are served by a 35 tonne and six 40-t gantry cranes.
The port has good rail and road connections inland to other centres.
9.4.1 Cape Town Dry-dock Facilities
Sturrock Graving Dock
Overall docking length
Length on bottom (dock floor)
Width at entrance top
Width at bottom (dock floor)
--
--
--
--
--
360 m
350.4 m
45.1 m
38.4 m maximum
13.7 m Depth over entrance sill HWOST
A docking length of 369.6 m can be obtained by placing the caisson in the emergency stop at the entrance.
The dock can be divided into two compartments of either, 132.5 m and 216.1 m or
205.7 m and 142.9 m respectively. Five cranes provided ranging from 4 to 50 ton capacity.
Syncrolift
Lifting capacity
Maximum length of vessel
Maximum width of vessel
Robinson Graving Dock
Overall docking length
Length on bottom
Width at entrance
--
--
--
--
--
--
1778 tons
61 m
15 m
161.2 m
152.4 m
20.7 m
Depth over entrance sill HWOST
Two cranes provided
9.4.2 Quay Space
-- 7.9 m
Repair quay
A repair quay and lay-up berths are available. The repair quay is of 457 m in length with an allowable draft of 12 m and is equipped with two cranes, one of 15 tons capacity and the other of 4 tons.
A-Berth
This quay has been made available for longer-term offshore projects. Examples include the Glasdower FPSO upgrade and the Ya Toiva diamond mining vessel upgrade. The quay offers a suitable for upgrade projects but would be unsuitable for
49

major new buildings or construction of complete units. It is also suitable for sub assembly fabrications and erection of offshore units.
9.4.3 Craneage
Repair contractors own various mobile cranes and in addition numerous mobile crane operators have mobile cranes from 10 ton to 180 tons available for hire. The various repair quays are equipped with general cargo handling cranes with capacities below 4 tons.
Contractors for large-scale projects of reasonable duration erect very large cranes.
The National Ports Authority owns a floating crane with a maximum capacity of 200 tons, which is vital for major lifts in the port. Contractor workshops are equipped with the necessary overhead cranes with capacities up to around 50 tons.
9.5 Recommended Actions for NPA
Dry-dock constraints: Expedite the ship repair facility tender process. Current tender timing aims towards a second bid for technical and market information. It is unlikely that Cape Town and/or Saldanah will thus see a change in facilities at least within a 12 to 18 month period. Consider a floating dock as an interim solution.
Maximise current facility throughput: Appoint an NPA Ship Repair Representative to deal with all ship repair related facilities. Optimise the docking/undocking procedures to limit the time frames. Ensure that the facilities have adequate support in terms of cranes and crane drivers available 7 days a week and day/night shifts.
Ensure Owners insist on 24-hour operations from repair contractors. Daily management of dry-dock bookings and daily attendance of dry-dock meetings.
Quay Availability: Clarity is required on what quays will be available for offshore projects. The A-Berth facility has proven valuable for offshore projects and Cape
Town harbour will require such a facility to at least support the industry. Clarity is also required on the availability of the Mossgas site at Saldanha. Both facilities are in need of some upgrade to make them suitable.
Joint Industry Approach: The offshore work can only be secured by the joint efforts of NPA and the ship repair cluster. For many years the cluster has requested a number of operational constraints to be addressed. With many unresolved issues that remain on the table an element of mistrust has developed between the industry and NPA. There is major benefit from all sides to work together to secure work. This was evident when DCD-Dorbyl and NPA marketing jointly secured the 5 Alpha container vessels recently. Delivery is paramount to Owners and thus the joint cooperation between repairers and NPA is vital. The appointment of a high levelled ship repair manager within NPA will go along way to solve this current perception and provide Owners with a level of comfort that we are addressing their concerns in Cape
Town.
50