South African state-owned logistics group Transnet plans to spend 4.2 billion rand (US$596 million) to upgrade infrastructure at the port of Cape Town, the second largest container facility in the country, to meet fast-growing trade volumes that have stretched capacity, Reuters reports.

The project, which is part of the company's five-year 78 billion rand capital spending programme, should start in 2008.

South Africa's busiest port of Durban is also being upgraded and a new container terminal and industrial zone named Coega is being built near the southern coast city of Port Elizabeth.