Namport e-Newsletter

26 November 2019

Namibian Ports Authority marks 15 years of ISO Management systems accreditations

Congratulations are in order as Namport consecutively received its 15th-year accreditations from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This is following a successful external audit that was conducted by the South African based National Quality Assurance (NQA) representing the Global Certification Body based in the United Kingdom.
 

The external auditors covered the ISO 9001 Standard (Quality Management System), the ISO 14001 Standard (Environmental Management System) and the ISO 45001 Standard (Health and Safety Management System) and as a result, conferring Namport with the positive report on all three standards.

The Acting Chief Executive Officer of Namport, Mr Kavin Harry said that “the importance of this achievement cannot be underestimated especially the impact it has on reassuring our esteemed customers on the quality and safety of our services rendering at our ports. It is, therefore, only befitting that I, on behalf of the Executive management team convey our heartfelt appreciation for the great work displayed by all Namport employees resulting into this great achievement”, he said.

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Delivery of steel rails for upgrading work on track

The second consignment of about 3860 steel rails, around 7500 metric tonnes, was discharged from the general cargo vessel Vestis Isle at the Port of Walvis Bay on Thursday, 21 November 2019. The rails are meant for the upgrading of the Walvis Bay to Kranzberg railway line section, which is about 210 km.
 

In late July this year, the first batch of 6679 tonnes of steel rails arrived at the Port. This was part of a consignment of 20 000 tonnes intended for the upgrading of the railway infrastructure.
 

According to Mr Robert H. Kalomho, Director: Railway Infrastructure Management from the Ministry of Works and Transport, “the delivery of the 20,000 tons is envisaged to be done in three batches with delivery to laydown areas [Walvis Bay, Arandis and Usakos] to be completed in 60 weeks”. He added that the last delivery of 5821 tonnes is expected to be delivered in March 2020.

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Pyrolusite imported through the Port of Walvis Bay

The third consignment of about 7 500 metric tonnes of Pyrolusite was discharged from the general cargo vessel, Unistar, at the Port of Walvis Bay on 13 November 2019, at the multipurpose terminal.
 

Pyrolusite, mainly used in the production of uranium in Namibia is originally from Safi, Morocco and intended for Swakop Uranium.
 

Around 5000 bags, each weighing about 1.5 tonnes, was immediately loaded on to seven trucks, about 20 – 22 bags per trip, and transported to its destination. The utilization of the Trans-Kalahari corridor, an efficient logistics and supply chain route, allows for a quicker turn-around time of vessels at the Port.

Pyrolusite contains about 63.19% Manganese and 36.81% Oxygen, better known as MnO2, and the Manganese (Mn) is used as a reducing agent during uranium production.

Since January 2019 Namport handled more than 37 000 metric tonnes of Pyrolusite (Manganese), in comparison to about 29 800 metric tonnes in 2018. Another consignment of about 7 500 metric tonnes is expected to arrive at the Port in December.

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Queen Elizabeth docks at the Port of Walvis Bay

In the early morning hours of 17 November 2019, the Queen Elizabeth passenger vessel docked at the passenger terminal of the Namibian Ports Authority. The vessel that was carrying 1915 passengers and 998 crew members came from Santa Cruz de Tenerife and made a 9 hour stop at the Port of Walvis Bay, giving the passengers a chance to disembark the vessel and visit local tourist attractive places in and around Walvis Bay.

The nine-year-old vessel is sailing under the flag of Bermuda and is heading to the port of Cape Town in South Africa. The number of passenger liners received at the Namibian Ports Authority has increased significantly over the past three financial reporting periods respectively as follows: 27 liners, 31 liners, 33 liners.
 

So far the entity has hosted 11 cruise liners in its current financial year and is thrilled to report that the frequency of passenger vessels visits have increased considerably since the commissioning of the dedicated passenger liner in August 2019. The Ports Authority looks forward to the arrival of 7 cruise liners during the month of January 2020 amounting to 10,000 visitors during this period.

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First Namport employee to win Chancellor's award

Earlier this month, Namport’s very own Legal Advisor, Ms Carol Jaimy Schroeder not only added a new qualification of Master of Science in Maritime Affairs specialising in Maritime Law and Policy at the World Maritime University to her wall, but she graduated with distinction and also walked away with the much-coveted Chancellor’s Medal for Academic Excellence.
 

As an entity, Namport believes and strives for gender parity and remains committed to availing opportunities of self-development to its workforce and thus permitted Ms Schroeder time off to further her studies.
 

Carol, who joined the World Maritime University (WMU) situated in Malmö, Sweden 14 months ago, also took up other leadership positions at the University such as leading the WMU Women’s Association that is recognised by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as well as holding the position of Chairperson of Court of Honour of the WMU Student Council.
 

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