The focus by terminal
operators on the more lucrative
container trade in favour
of breakbulk is impacting
negatively on the breakbulk
industry, according to Arie ter
Veen, managing director of
Africa Port Services.
“In West Africa the
privatisation of terminals has
led the terminal owners to
enter the container business
big time as it is more lucrative
than breakbulk cargo,” he said.
The decision by government
to see cargo moved out of
ports more quickly has also
impacted on the industry as
the freight by its very nature
is large and cumbersome and
difficult to move – and the
areas around the ports are
often congested.
With the streets outside of
Lagos a complete nightmare
due to the horrendous traffic
jams caused by container
trucks, getting cargo in and
out of the port is often near
impossible, he said.
“The move to reduce the
time cargo spends in ports is
a direct result of people using
the port warehouses as free
storage for their cargo because
it is so difficult to get it out.
But that has reduced the space
for containers which had seen
them being stacked ten high.”
He said to address this
matter legislation had been
changed restricting cargo dwell
time in the port.
“Bureaucracy on the
other hand sometimes stops
cargo from moving out fast.
Ultimately ports should
have areas where cargo can
be kept temporarily, but as
containerisation grows and
breakbulk becomes less
important there is just no
move towards ensuring such
facilities.”
He said an additional
challenge was the fact that
very few ports had any space
left to develop such facilities
for project cargo or breakbulk.
According to Ter Veen, this
was not a major issue in some
of the more mature markets,
but if one looked at Angola
it was clear that cargo was
not flowing through the ports
optimally.
“It takes a minimum of
30 days to clear anything
in Angola, while it is not
surprising to have cargo held
up for 90 days in the port due
to bureaucracy. The solution
in the entire west African
region lies in establishing
better relationships with
authorities in an effort to
reduce bureaucracy to move
cargo faster.”
CAPTION
Lagos traffic nightmare ... getting cargo in and out of the port is often impossible.
