On October 4 the new deepwater Port of Ngqura in South Africa witnessed the 984.2-ft long, 42.6-ft deep MSC Catania became the port terminal’s first commercial vessel.
The docking of the vessel – while a major milestone for the port and the country – was used as a real live test-run for vessel operators to hone their skills in this first commercial container offloading at the Port of Ngqura.
The MSC Catania is part of MSC’s Europe Service. It arrived en route from Durban where adverse weather conditions during the week had delayed its expected arrival at the Port of Ngqura.
Two gangs of operators – with a third on standby – successfully put months of training to the test in handling and offloading the vessel using the port’s state-of-the-art Liebherr ship-to-shore cranes. The vessel will take between eight and 12 hours to be offloaded at the Port of Ngqura and will then sail to Cape Town and onward to Europe.