West African boom creates major sea and air demand

A BOOM in major construction projects across the West African region – including Angola, DRC, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Liberia – has placed a huge demand on air and seafreight volumes, according to Neil Robertson, a director of Africa specialists,Robertson’s Freight, who heads up the export department. “The incredible growth and the relative stability in the region over the past four years have seen our client base pushing huge volumes,” he said, “and increasing our turnover three-fold during 2007.” Although there was a comparatively slow start to the year, Robertson forecast a huge upswing from March, with the renewal of existing contracts and new ventures coming on-stream. “Sea and airfreight volumes moving into West Africa – mainly diamond mining, oil field and construction equipment – have increased tremendously,” he said. However, this has led to ports in West Africa becoming extremely congested – and Robertson estimates that clearance and delivery can take anything from seven days to two weeks. “Africa on the whole has its own unique challenges,” he said. “And – unless your clients’ receivers have the proper representation in these areas – it’s very difficult to get an honest update on what is truly transpiring with their shipments.”