Durban Port

Welcome!

The idea of Durban as a port dates to 1824 when the first European settlers made a landing with the intention of setting up a trading post.

The Bay of Natal (Durban Bay) was one of the few natural harbours available along the east coast of southern Africa between Algoa Bay and Delagoa Bay (now Maputo Bay).

The port has a total of 59 effective berths excluding those used by fishing vessels and ship repair. some of these are currently being lengthened and deepened, which will in effect reduce the number of actual berths while catering for the larger modern ships. A single buoy mooring at Isipingo on the southeast side of the Bluff caters for very large crude carriers (VLCC) that are too large to enter the port. Proposals have been made to extend the harbour deeper into the Bayhead headwaters where several large container terminals will be built but this remains under long-term hold, while another proposal calls for a new ‘Dig-out-Port’ south of the existing harbour on the site of the former Durban International Airport at Isipingo.

A total of 302km of rail tracks extends throughout the port area along with several major marshalling yards.