The volume of vehicles moved through the East London harbour, in the Eastern Cape, rose to 50 513 units in January, 26% higher than the 37 472 fully built units shifted in January 2009.

Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) reports that the multipurpose port's combi and roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) facilities have also been operating well above budgeted levels, reflecting the prevailing recovery in domestic and international new vehicle markets.

A total of 47 755 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) were handled at the harbour in January 2011, a 17% improvement on last year's 39 799 TEUs.

TPT said that January's export volumes were 200% better than forecast, while imports were 38% better than budgeted.

Recently TPT increased the combi terminal capacity to 90 000 TEUs, while the number of undercover parking bays has been increased to 2 800, with an additional 1 000 open bays.

The capacity expansion has been pursued in line with the export programme recently secured by Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA).

MBSA will produce the next generation C-Class at its East London plant, with production to start in 2014.

The local arm of the Daimler group will expand the capacity of the plant from around 50 000 units a year to 65 000 units a year.