Cape barges in on global ship trade

There is more to the Cape Town Waterfront these days than snoek and slap chips.

The world-famous Tavern of the Seas, once an essential stop-over for boats and long ships travelling to and from the east, is fast turning into a global shipbuilding and repair hub.

Buoyed by resurgent offshore oil and gas activity, Cape Town's shipbuilding and repair industry is soaring to new heights.

A massive oil rig recently left Table Bay after a R1-billion repair job which created 1100 jobs - proof that Cape Town had moved into the ship repair "super league".

The industry in the Western Cape is also now set to benefit from a projected R113-billion investment in Saldanha's industrial development zone, which has been earmarked as a new hub for oil rig repairs.

"We are becoming known as a destination that produces good quality," MEC for agriculture and economic development Alan Winde said. "We have more than 40 boat-building companies in the Western Cape. There is a lot of potential."

He said the province was already well established in the luxury boat market, producing the second-highest number of catamarans in the world.

Craig Tretheway, project manager for Damen Shipyards, said the Netherlands-based company did not have enough quay space to keep up with demand.

"There's a big demand for vessels, especially in Africa. We can't keep up," Tretheway said.

The company has just finished three new fast-crew supply vessels that service the offshore oil and gas industry, and is busy with a further four.

Tretheway said there was also a big demand for patrol vessels due to the ongoing scourge of piracy on the seas.

Cape Town's location made it an important repair stopover for ships destined for the Americas, Tretheway said.

Nautic Africa CEO James Fisher said the local industry could easily compete with the likes of Dubai, Turkey and China because it got the support from the government in training, credit and infrastructure assistance.

"It has taken a lot of work to get a company like ours to where it is today," Fisher said.