Ethiopia’s Toll Road
Ethiopia’s first toll road, the Addis Ababa-Adama expressway, opened for traffic on September 14, cutting the travel time from the capital city to Adama to 45 minutes from three hours. Operated by the Ethiopian Toll Roads Enterprise (ETRE), the six-lane, 84.6 kilometer-long/31 meter-wide superhighway is critical to Ethiopia’s economy as an artery to the road connecting the Addis-Ababa with the port of Djibouti and with the eastern and southern parts of the country. It was built by China Communications Construction Co., with the Export Import Bank of China kicking in a loan that covered 57 percent of the more than $5 billion in construction costs.
Upgrade Ports Or Lose Out
Kenya Ports Authority Chairman Danson Mungatana has warned African ports that failure to upgrade will cause them to miss out on the multibillion-dollar-and-growing international maritime trade, The Star newspaper (Nairobi, Kenya) reports. Speaking at the two-day East Africa Transport Infrastructure Conference at the end of August in Nairobi, Mungatana said big-ship calls could bypass African nations if the infrastructure doesn’t support them, exacerbating the continent’s negligible showing in global trade, conservatively estimated at a mere 2 percent share currently. He noted that the steady increase in ship sizes and growing cargo volumes have put pressure on cargo infrastructure and terminal capacities worldwide, but particularly in African where ports are experiencing capacity constraints and poor transport infrastructure connectivity. The four-fold jump in the capacity of sea vessels to 16,000 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in 2011 from 4,000 TEUs in 1996 and 6,000 TEUs in 2001 are warning bells for the continent’s ports, he said. Kenya’s port of Mombasa is working on phase two of a dredging project that would allow the port to handle ships above its current maximum capacity of 4,600 TEUs.
Port Expansion Morocco, Ghana
Moroccan officials are touting their country’s blossoming economy and attractive returns on investment in hopes of attracting up to $8 billion for new port infrastructure, The Journal of Commerce reports. The $8 billion would mostly benefit the ports of Tanger-Med and Casablanca, which are both expanding container work. At Casablanca, the port is adding a third container terminal with new cranes and rubber tire gantries. Moroccan Minister of Equipment, Transport and Logistics Aziz Rabbah said the country’s port authorities are allowing public-private partnerships to speed up investment in local ports.
In other port news, The Journal of Commerce quotes a Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority official as saying that Ghana’s ports of Tema and Takoradi could potentially handle a combined 1 million TEUs a year. The official said estimates show that volume could double by 2028. Both ports are currently under construction with expansion projects, which include dredging work that will deepen the ports to allow for larger vessels.
Ebola Fee On Shipments
Hapag-Lloyd, one of the world’s largest container shipping lines, began charging an Ebola inspection fee on all shipments to and from West Africa from Sept. 21 as mandatory health checks on ships are expected to cause lengthy delays. Cargo shipments to Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria will be charged $250 per 20-foot container and $350 per 40-foot container. For shipments with the origin or destination U.S., the inspection fee is being charged from Sept. 29.
In an advisory note to customers, Hapag-Lloyd said Cote d’Ivoire’s Port Health department has imposed mandatory health checks on all vessels that have called in countries affected by Ebola while at anchorage at Abidjan. Only once all on board are confirmed to be in good health will the pilot be allowed to board and bring a vessel into Abidjan port. However, the Ivorian health inspectors and quarantine teams can only check two vessels a day, resulting in huge delays and additional operational measures, such as diversion to other ports and extra handling, the German carrier said. “The consequent cost exposure for Hapag-Lloyd is tremendous and we see no other alternative but to recover these costs through the cargo,” the line said.
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*Remittances into Kenya jump 20 percent in August from last year
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