Port developments could realign freight routes

26 Nov 2013 - by Ed Richardson

After decades of stagnation
there is a new wave of
investment in African
ports which is challenging
everyone along
the supply chain
to constantly
re-evaluate the
way they are
doing business.
FTW’s
experience when
interviewing
freight
forwarders,
shippers and
transporters in neighbouring
countries is that many are so
invested in “safe and reliable”
routes through South African
ports that they are missing out on
the opportunities being created by
investment in ports like Beira and
Walvis Bay.
Given the nature of the industry,
one can assume that the same inertia
will be found across Africa, with
established companies sticking to
the routes they know and trust,
allowing others to pioneer the use of
routes to newly
rehabilitated
ports, or even allnew
ports.
There is so
much investment
that there is
insufficient space
to list all the port
upgrades and new
ports that can be
found all along the
African coastline.
Most of this investment is not
happening in isolation – it is
accompanied by road and rail
infrastructure upgrades, along with
customs reforms in order to facilitate
the free flow of shipments through
the ports.
These developments have the
potential of realigning freight routes.
Tanzania, for example, is working
with Rwanda and Burundi to
develop a new railway linking the
three countries.
Tanzania also plans to spend
$330 million to upgrade its
railway network in order to make it
compatible with those across central
and southern Africa. The move
follows the signing of a tripartite
agreement to harmonise operations
between the Tanzania Zambia
Railway Authority
(Tazara), Zambia
Railways Ltd and
Societe Nationale
des Chemins de
Fer Du Congo Sarl
of the Democratic
Republic of Congo
— the national railway operators
for Tanzania, Zambia and the DRC
respectively.
In the same region, the
governments of Kenya and South
Sudan have started consultative talks
with several international donors to
finance the US$1.08 billion Juba-
Eldoret development corridor.
A road linking the north-west
Kenyan town of Eldoret with
the South Sudanese capital Juba
is an integral part of the Lamu
Port Southern
Sudan-Ethiopia
Transport
(LAPSSET)
Corridor.
To the west,
Angola is working
on reviving
the Lobito corridor link to the
Copperbelt, which will challenge the
Beira, Dar es Salaam and Walvis Bay
routes.
Durban will effectively be out of
contention.
On a regional scale, the
Programme for Infrastructure
Development in Africa (PIDA) aims
to develop a supply-side web of
37 200km of highways,
30 200km of railways and 16 500km
of interconnected power lines by
2040.
It also plans to add 54 150
megawatt of hydroelectric power
generation capacity and an extra 1.3
billion tons throughput capacity at
the ports. PIDA is the joint initiative
of a number of leading development
agencies and economic communities
in Africa.
Moving freight in Africa – which
is never boring – is becoming more
interesting.