Spotted: Cape Town’s Dry Dock Gets Busy

Repairs and maintenance activities are gaining momentum at the Sturrock Dry Dock in the Port of Cape Town, South Africa.

Among the vessels repaired recently was the 1978-built M/V Debmar Atlantic, owned by diamond company De Beers Marine Namibia (Pty) Ltd.

Sturrock Dry Dock also hosted the recent repairs on the deep water field development ship (FDS) SAIPEM FDS 2 owned by Portuguese oil company Saipem. SAIPEM FDS 2 was designed and built to assist in the construction of subsea infrastructure, connecting oil production platforms with refineries on shore.

“The Port of Cape Town has been earmarked as one of the important hubs for the delivery of government’s Operation Phakisa initiatives aimed at supporting the growth of the local ship repair, ship building and oil and gas sectors. We have seen increased ship repair activity and are gearing up for more frequent calls such as this one,” Cape Town Port Manager, Sipho Nzuza, said.

TNPA plans to refurbish the Syncrolift facility which is situated in the Victoria & Albert Waterfront Precinct, replace water circulating pumps at the Sturrock Dry Dock, as well as replace 10 cranes at the Robinson Dry Dock and Sturrock Dry Dock.