International trade on the West African coasts is witnessing unprecedented growth as recent survey in the region’s ports show an increase of 364 per cent in cargo traffic.
Speaking to journalists in Lagos, the Director Advocacy, Nigerian Chamber of Shipping, Dr. Chinelo Amaka Chizea-Koko, said current increasing global cargo traffic was exerting enormous pressure on ports across the world, with only ports that had improved on performance through investment of modern equipment and planning benefiting from the increase.
?
?
She explained that in a recent survey of performance of ports in the last five years by Ocean Shipping Consultants, increase in West African ports was more in containerised cargo than in general cargo.
Chizea-Koko said the survey showed an increase of 189 per cent for West Africa against 431 per cent in South Africa and 177 per cent in East Africa.
?
?
“On the other hand, containerised cargo increase was 364 per cent in West Africa, 128 per cent in South Africa and 176 per cent in East Africa, during the period under review. These data give indications of where to channel our strength,” she said.
In terms of cargo dwell time, no Nigerian port is anywhere to be found near the desired period of four to seven days. Los Angeles has a maximum of four days, most countries in Europe record between three and five days while cargo dwell time is as short as two or three days in Hong-Kong and Singapore.
?
?
“An economic activities report by the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) showed that at the end of December last year, the ports in Nigeria had a cargo throughput of 74.9 million metric tonnes (mmt), representing an increase of 12 per cent from the 66.9mmt recorded in 2009. Also, the report showed that coastal vessels that called at the ports in 2010 stood at 21,950, which is an increase of 26.1 per cent when compared with 17,403 recorded in 2009.
?
?
“The gross tonnage of the coastal vessels in 2010 stood at 6.8mmt showing a growth of 18.6 per cent over 2009 which had 5.7mmt. D etails of other cargo throughput show that liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipment in 2010 stood at 19.4mmt, representing a growth of 40.7 per cent over the 13.8mmt in 2009,” she said
?