As governments across
the continent gear up
for economic growth,
investment in ports is on
an upward trajectory.
“We are inundated with port
projects at present as countries
add capacity to their existing port
infrastructure – or in many cases
invest in totally new ports,” Africa
House project specialist, Paul
Runge, told FTW.
He said dredging was taking
place at several ports as attempts
were being made to deepen
draughts since many ports were
simply not deep enough to handle
the new age vessels.
Deanne de Vries, senior vice
president for Agility Africa, said
ongoing port development would
impact positively on the project
cargo and breakbulk sector as
facilities were being improved.
“This will encourage more traffic,”
she said, “which is vital as 90% of
Africa’s imports and exports come
and go by sea.”
The Mombasa Port Development
Project sector welcomes
growing port upgrade activity
Project has, for example, seen
handling capacity at Kenya’s Port
of Mombasa grow from 300 000
TEUs in 2002 to 1 million in
2014. It is forecast to grow to 2.6
million by 2025. In Mozambique,
Maputo Port completed its dredging
campaign and is under a rolling
refurbishment programme which
includes doubling its container
storage. Beira has evolved
considerably over the past few
years and in the past 10 years has
grown from 30 000 TEUs per year
to over 210 000. Dredging and
improved operating efficiencies in
the port have also resulted in major
improvements.
Runge said investments into the
Nacala port had been welcomed, as
this was a natural deep-water port.
With refurbishments now complete
it should help to bring more cargo to
Mozambique.
De Vries said the Dar es Salaam
port was now operating 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, with ongoing
expansion and deepening of berths
– and construction of new berths
also under way.
Runge said developments at the
Port of Lamu in Kenya, Walvis Bay
in Namibia and Tema in Ghana
were all indicative of how important
ports were on African agendas.
Namibia is investing billions
into the Port of Walvis Bay while
the port of Tema is undergoing an
expansion that will make it the
largest container facility in West
Africa by 2019.
Namibia is investing billions into the Port of Walvis Bay.
