Investments create new Africa port landscape

As ports across the continent
invest in infrastructure
upgrades, co-opetition has
become the buzz word.
“We can achieve far more as
regions and as a continent if we
collaborate,” says Pamela Yoyo
terminal manager at the Cape
Town Terminals.
“Monopoly leads to
complacency and in a crowded
market you need to stand out.
Competition between African
ports will ensure continuous
improvement.”
Currently
there are
major
developments
under way
in Africa.
“Instead of
looking at
this from
a negative
perspective
we need to
understand
what the benefit is and how we
can adapt to ensure that we all
remain viable.”
She says in South Africa
Transnet Port Terminals
is investing heavily in its
operations in Durban, Ngqura
and Cape Town as well as the
other ports through its market
demand strategy.
With a container capacity
of 6.5 million TEUs, South
Africa’s position on the major
trade routes has enabled it to
access the South South trade,
the Far East trade, as well as
the trade from Europe, the
USA and West Africa.
“But it is not just South
Africa’s ports that are investing
in infrastructure, equipment
and facilities. At the Lome
Container Terminal in Togo
they have upped capacity to
2.2 million TEUs while the
draught is now 15.5 m and
the quay length 1050 metres
with 14 ship-to-shore cranes.
The maximum vessel size this
port can now handle is 14000
TEUs,” says Yoyo.
In Walvis Bay the port
capacity is
being trebled
from the
current 350
000 TEUs to
more than one
million per
annum while
in Takoradi
in Ghana
there have
been ongoing
developments
to upgrade and
expand the port.
“A second container
terminal has been opened in
Kenya at the Port of Mombasa
and in Tanzania there are
pending container terminal
developments.”
She says all of this highlights
the growing competition for
cargo volumes in Africa.
“If one looks at the US
and Europe, where there
are numerous cooperative
agreements between
ports, then it is clear that
collaboration is the best way
forward for Africa.”
INSERT & CAPTION
We can achieve far
more as regions and
as a continent if we
collaborate.
– Pamela Yoyo