New dredger launched

TRANSNET’S latest dredger, Ilembe, was named and launched in the Netherlands at the weekend, with Lunga Ngcobo, the general manager of corporate affairs at Transnet National Ports Authority, officially naming the ship in the timehonoured fashion.

The trailing suction hopper dredger has a capacity of 5 500 cubic metres, well in excess of the next biggest dredger in Transnet’s service, Isandlwana, with its capacity of 4 200 cubic metres.

Ilembe is under construction at the Dutch firm of Royal IHC’s shipyard at Kinderdijk. Royal IHC previously operated as IHC Merwede.

The contract for the dredger, which will become the biggest to serve with the port authority, was signed in March last year and the keel was laid in January this year.

Completion of the dredger is expected at the end of this year, after which Ilembe will be delivered to her home port of Durban in early January next year.

On delivery, Ilembe will join the TNPA fleet, which consists of the Isandlwana, a grab hopper dredger named Italeni and an older trailing suction hopper dredger named Ingwenya, which is undergoing maintenance in Durban.

Transnet’s fleet helps maintain the eight national ports of Saldanha, Cape Town, Mossel Bay, Port Elizabeth, Ngqura, East London, Durban and Richards Bay.

Transnet also intends using the fleet to take on contract work with other ports – in the past, its dredgers have maintained the port of Walvis Bay, and more recently Italeni undertook contract work at the Mozambique port of Maputo.

Isandlwana was also built at the shipyard in Kinderdijk, while Italeni was built at an associate company of Royal IHC in Bulgaria. As part of the contracts to build what has become essentially a new fleet for the port authority, the Dutch shipyard will deliver a supplier development plan aimed at upgrading and improving the industry in South Africa.

The main objective within this plan is the development of a school for dredging operations, which includes the delivery of a dredging simulator, where Royal IHC and the authority’s Maritime School of Excellence will establish a co-operative set-up for the training of local dredging operators.