DURBAN

Durban is located on the northern coast of Durban Bay on the eastern coast of South Africa, bordering the southwest side of the Indian Ocean. Also known as Natal Port, it is the largest container port in South Africa. It is the third largest city in the country. The Orange Free State and Transvaal provinces in the northwest of the port, along a 408km long arc-shaped zone, are the main gold producing areas. The reserves of gold are about 20000 tons, ranking first in the world, and the annual output value accounts for more than 50% of South Africa's total mineral value. Gold has a low gold content, harsh working conditions, and high costs. South Africa has platinum reserves of approximately 27000 tons, accounting for 75% of the world's total reserves, ranking first in the world, followed by Canada and the former Soviet Union. The main production area is in the central part of the province of Transvaal, in the Potgeitersrus region, which accounts for 91% of the production in the capitalist world. Generally, each ton of ore contains only 4-15 grams of platinum. Platinum metal is an indispensable catalyst for electronic equipment contacts and petrochemicals, and its demand is increasing day by day. The main industries in the port include chemistry, textiles, oil refining, shipbuilding, rubber, sugar and food production, and automobile assembly. It also has large oil refineries, sugar factories, and automobile repair shops. The port is about 27km away from Bota Airport and has regular flights to Johannesburg every day, connecting with domestic and international flights. The port has a tropical grassland climate, with prevailing southwest and northeast winds. The annual average temperature is about 20 ℃. The average annual rainfall is about 1000mm. The average tidal height is about 1.8m for high tide and 0.7m for low tide. Hong Kong has a breakwater enclosure and a water area of 16 square meters. There are 43 main berths in the port area, with a shoreline length of 9230m and a maximum water depth of 12.8m. The loading and unloading equipment includes various shore cranes, mobile cranes, container cranes, floating cranes, truck cranes, belt conveyors, and roll on/roll off facilities. The maximum lifting capacity of the shore crane is 80 tons, the floating crane reaches 200 tons, and there are oil pipelines with diameters of 203.2~254mm for loading and unloading. The loading and unloading efficiency is as follows: grain can load 1290 tons per hour, 1250 tons per hour, manganese ore can load 400 tons per hour, coal can load 1100 tons per hour, and sugar can load 700 tons per hour. The maximum single point floating capacity of a Hong Kong oil tanker at sea is 300000 deadweight tons. There is an open-air yard in the port area that can store 200000 tons of goods, with a sugar storage capacity of 520000 tons and a container yard area of 102 square meters. The anchorage depth of the large ship is 18 meters. In 1994, the container throughput reached 724000 TEUs, an increase of 14% compared to 1993. The main export goods are manganese ore, steel, gold, coal, iron ore, sugar, peanuts, corn, wool, leather, citrus, and pig iron. The imported goods mainly include wheat, machinery, fertilizers, crude oil, transportation equipment, textiles, wood, paper, tea, and chemical products. We do not work during holidays such as New Year's Day and Christmas.