From African Business

Bolloré Africa Logistics Ghana Limited is to invest about $15m in infrastructural upgrading at the Tema Port as part of efforts aimed at expanding facilities there to meet rising demand.

The investment will go into the purchase and installation of cranes, reach stackers, ship to-shore cranes, among others, and will be done through its local partners, Meridian Port Services (MPS), a joint venture between Bolloré and the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA). MPS has, since 2007, been managing the container terminal at the Tema Port and has, together with its partners, invested about $100m into the container terminal after taking over its operations from the GPHA.

The Tema Port, one of the two sea ports in Ghana, handles about 70% of total maritime freight to and from the country. There has been increasing pressure on the facilities there as cargo throughput continues to rise and that has led to delays in loading, offloading and cargo clearance.

To help close the infrastructure deficits and reduce handling challenges, Bolloré and its local partner, MPS, had resolved to expand the harbour’s equipment base. Meanwhile, traffic at the port continues to increase.

Cargo throughput at Tema rose by 26.4% in 2011 to 11m tonnes, while container volumes grew 28.3% to 756,899 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). Container traffic through the port grew from about 343,000 TEUs in 2004 to about 526,000 TEUs in 2009 and then to 822,000 in 2012, a growth of 56% in three years, with limited vessel facilities at the port.

Total cargo traffic through the port rose to 9.2m metric tonnes in 2004 and dropped to 7.4m in 2009 but rose to 11.5m metric tonnes in 2012, a similar growth of 55% in three years.

For the year ending 2012 alone, 511 full cellular container vessels called at the port, with 33 multipurpose container vessels, 162 Ro-Ro (roll-on-roll off) vessels and 104 refrigerated vessels also served by the port. In the 12 months of 2012, the port discharged about 156,000 vehicles, or an average of 540 vehicles per working day, into the Ghanaian economy.

Read more at AfricanBusinessMagazine.com.