Saudi Arabian ports operator Red Sea Gateway Terminal, backed by the kingdom\u2019s $925 billion sovereign wealth fund, is evaluating whether to bid to develop and run a fresh-produce terminal at Africa\u2019s biggest maritime hub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa\u2019s state-owned ports operator on Monday issued requests for proposals for a terminal operator to build and manage the development at the Maydon Wharf at the port of Durban. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The concession would be for 25 years, Transnet said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRed Sea Gateway Terminal International is a keen investor in the South African ports and related sectors\u201d RSGTI director of Global Investments Gagan Seksaria said in an emailed response to questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s considering participating in the tender together with potential local partners, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The development on the country\u2019s eastern coast spans about 145 hectares, features 15 berths and has capacity of more than 7 million tons of cargo annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa is seeking to boost private participation in its ports, whose poor performance has dragged down the economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Transnet has sought private investment to revive its container ports that rank among the least efficient globally, according to the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company disputes the rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A South African court in October temporarily blocked a deal between the state-owned logistics firm and International Container Terminal Services Inc. \u2014 owned by Filipino billionaire Enrique Razon \u2014 to expand and run sub-Saharan Africa\u2019s biggest container port, which is also at Durban, after A.P. Moller-Maersk A\/S challenged the award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa is the world\u2019s biggest citrus exporter after Spain, with its grapefruits, lemons and oranges shipped to nations such as South Korea and countries in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The chaos that\u2019s enveloped Transnet \u2014 beset by corruption, theft and dilapidated equipment \u2014 is a key threat to a rare economic success story in South Africa\u2019s ailing economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the inefficient rail lines and ports have sent coal and iron-ore exports to multi-decade lows, agricultural products in 2023 hit a record $13.2 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RSGTI is also evaluating multiple concession and acquisition opportunities in other parts of Africa with an emphasis on multipurpose terminals focused on mining and food trade, Seksaria said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saudi Arabian ports operator Red Sea Gateway Terminal, backed by the kingdom\u2019s $925 billion sovereign wealth fund, is evaluating whether to bid to develop and run a fresh-produce terminal at Africa\u2019s biggest maritime hub. South Africa\u2019s state-owned ports operator on Monday issued requests for proposals for a terminal operator to build and manage the development<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":758309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[19171],"class_list":["post-823118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-durban-port"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823118"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823121,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823118\/revisions\/823121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}