WEST Africa's full container volumes are predicted to reach 4
WEST Africa's full container volumes are predicted to reach 4.3 million TEU by 2021, according to the latest research report by Dynamar BV. West Africa encompasses 9,700 kilometres of coastline and a land area of 12.75 million square kilometres. It has a population of 535 million people, trade value of US$294 billion and a GDP estimated at $802 billion.
The Gulf of Guinea region accounts for 65 per cent of the population, 71 per cent of GDP, 63 per cent of trade and 56 per cent of container throughput. It also houses the largest ports in terms of throughput, namely Togo followed by Nigeria and Ghana.
Compared to East Africa, West Africa is clearly moving in the direction of maturation. The ships are bigger, there are more carriers and there is a substantial presence of international port operators. In 2017, 285 box ships sailed the seven intercontinental trade lanes to West Africa. Deployed by 24 different operators, their average capacity was 3,300 TEU.
West African terminals and ports have benefited from foreign investment with terminal operators and carriers driving growth. Foreign terminal operators include APM Terminals, Bollore, China Merchants Ports, DP World, ICTSI, Portek, TIL Group (MSC) and various carriers, such as CMA CGM in Cameroon and Nigeria, Grimaldi in Nigeria, and NileDutch in Angola.
