Mauritius gateway hub ambitions

Mauritius’s Port Louis is set to become a gateway to Africa, according to Dr Jyaneshwur Jhurry, senior advisor in the prime minister’s office. “Its strategic, geographical and time zone location and well-developed infrastructure is the best in Indian Ocean,” he told a conference in Bangkok earlier this month, reports Port Strategy. Port Louis already handles 99% of the total volume of Mauritius’s external trade and is set to become a key nodal point in trade between Asia and Africa. It has three terminals as well as a fishing port, an oil jetty moving 1.1million tonnes and a cruise jetty. Terminal one has three quays ranging from 135 metres to 210 metres with matching drafts of nine metres to 12.2 metres. Multi-Purpose Terminal II has four quays of 123 metres, 180 metres and two at 185 metres all with a draft of 12.2 metres. Terminal III, the Mauritius Container Terminal, has a throughput of 550 000 TEUs with five post-Panamax quay cranes and eight rubber-tyred gantries (RTGs). It is dredged to a depth of 14.5 metres with a 450 metre diameter turning basin. All these, said Jhurry, combine to offer numerous opportunities - among them logistics, ship chandelling and repairs, ancillary services, bunkering, fuelling and storage.