Port authorities in Mauritius and Madagascar continue to invest in the harbours in order to retain hub status for cargo moving between the East and the east African seaboard in particular.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is financing the development of the Madagascan port of Toamasina.
Operation of the container terminal was privatised in 2004, with MICTSL (Madagascar International Container Terminal Services Ltd.) being granted a 20-year concession.
The expansion will see Toamasina become the secondlargest port in the region, after Durban.
The present handling capacity is given as 400 000 TEUs a year.
Work on the port, which started in 2016, is scheduled for completion in 2023. It will provide an additional 470 metres of quay, with a draught of 16 metres to accommodate 60 000-ton vessels.
Madagascar has had export processing zone legislation in place since 1991 to attract investment to the island.
Mauritius has gone on a marketing drive, hosting the first Mauritius Maritime Week (MMW) in February this year. About 300 delegates from 19 different countries attended MMW 2018, according to the organisers.
Delegates were told that, due to its strategic location adjacent to one of the largest ocean routes on the East/West trade past South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, Port Louis is well on course to become a leading petroleum hub in Africa.
This is in line with the government’s objective to transform the petroleum sector into one of the strategic pillars of the economy.
Facilities at Port Louis include a bunkering hub, facilities for the disposal of fuels and local bunker sample analysis.
Port fees are also said to be competitive, and bunker booking procedures have been streamlined through the creation of an online portal. In the 2016/2017 financial year the port set a new record of exports of bunker by barge from 159 722 tons in FY15/16 to 289 670 tons in FY16/17, representing a growth of 81.5%.
There are four bunkering barges working out of Port Louis. On the container side, Port Louis handled over 387 000 containers in the 2016/2017 financial year – 4.7% up on the previous year, according to the port operator. Around 129 000 of these were for transhipment.
The port authority hopes to increase the terminal’s annual throughput capacity to a million TEUs by 2025, which would include 750 000 transhipment containers.
CAPTION
Port Louis... well on course to become a leading petroleum hub in Africa.
