Survey reveals extent of delays facing Africa’s shippers

Africa’s import and export shipment reliability is more likely to deteriorate before getting better, according to the latest study by Portoverview.com.

After more than 2 000 incident updates since its launch in January 2013, Portoverview.com Africa’s editor Victor Shieh highlighted the main current challenges facing shippers to and from Africa at the Cool Logistics Conference in Cape Town earlier this week.

Shieh commented: “1 957 incidents were recorded on our portal over the last sixteen months, in which we recorded an average of one weather-related incident per day for South Africa alone. Current congestion issues will remain a problem while port infrastructure is renewed over the next years. However, we see African hinterland connections beyond the terminal gates as the biggest challenge facing shippers.”

In a study presented at the conference, road and rail construction as well as investment in port infrastructure were identified as the main positive developments recorded on the portal. Greenfield sites along the African coast are cited as having the greatest potential to improve cargo efficiency. Projects such as the 2.5 million-TEU site in Lekki in Nigeria and the five million-TEU expansion in Tangier-Med will require similar investments on the intermodal leg to succeed.

SeaIntel Maritime Analysis, who is co-owner of the portal, publishes the monthly Global Liner Performance report that provides valuable insights on the shipments out of Africa to Europa and Asia through data provided by INTTRA.

“Through 2013, the report compared 20-50,000 containers per month between scheduled and actual arrival at final destination. We discovered that by the end of 2013 an African exporter had no more than an average 60% chance that his or her container would arrive on time in Asia and a 55% chance that a container would arrive on time in Europe. For shippers - especially those who produce and distribute perishable products - that’s a real challenge” commented Morten Berg Thomsen, Shipping Analyst at SeaIntel Maritime Analysis.

Citing a current average weekly capacity of 120 000 TEUs for dedicated services between Africa and Europe and Africa and Asia, of which an average of 36 000 TEUs are reefer, a separate study calculated a large gap in the availability of reefer plugs at ports across the continent to handle these potential volumes. A total of only 24 231 plugs published for the top 40 African ports means limited short-term potential in realising reefer imports and exports.

“Looking at the overall availability of published reefer plugs in Africa, 73% of the overall supply is concentrated in twelve ports in Morocco, Egypt, and South Africa, many of which are used for transhipment to destinations outside Africa. To improve prospects for African perishable exports, initiatives such as new the Inland Container Depots with reefer plugs in ports such as the ones in Tema and Mombasa are good examples of the way forward,” concluded Shieh.