AFRICA's ports, especially those in West Africa, are the least efficient globally, and have seen little improvements in three years, according to a new study.
Adding to their problems is the cascading of larger tonnage from east - west routes to African trades, bringing with more congestion, reports the new study PortOverview Africa.
How to best serve the region is a daily dilemma for the shipping lines, and long-term African trader Delmas is constantly reviewing its operation.
The CMA CGM subsidiary has announced an "emergency port congestion" surcharge for Doula, Cameroon to be implemented on May 1, where it said delays to vessels have reached 30 days.
"Despite modest gains reported in the first three months of 2015, overall reliability to and from the (African) continent is still far from optimal," said the co-author of the study, Victor Shieh.
Mr Shieh noted that with container shipping lines deploying much bigger ships on services from Asia, quay and landside congestion at African ports is a massive challenge for the industry.
Even the planned new terminals at Abidjan, Tema, Lome and Lagos, which are forecast to add up to 12 million TEU of quayside capacity, will only improve reliability if there is land-based infrastructure growth as well.
West Africa's ports are almost entirely dependent on roads to remove containers, so it follows that the bigger the ships, the more severely landside congestion will affect nearby cities, reported London's Loadstar.
Vessels of 5,000 TEU or more account for more than 20 per cent of tonnage deployed between Asia and West Africa, and MSC has even introduced an 8,500-TEU ship on its Africa Express Service that hubs at Lome, Togo.
Commenting to PortOverview Africa on the first months of its Africa Express Service, an MSC man said: "The feeder deployment has worked well. Since they are dedicated for our Asia mother vessel, whenever we suffer a delay, our feeders just wait to ensure the cargo gets connected."
But MSC's strategy of building a local feeder network to mitigate congestion and improve container delivery reliability carries risks, said the report.
"With elections in Togo at the end of the month, and delays at the Lome terminal following its opening last year, it still remains to be seen whether this bold gamble on local feeders will pay off," it said.
PORTS
26 April 2015 - 18:24
Despite African ports poor performance, trade continues to grow: report
AFRICA's ports, especially those in West Africa, are the least efficient globally, and have seen little improvements in three years, according to a new study.
PORTS
26 April 2015 - 18:24
Despite African ports poor performance, trade continues to grow: report
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