Container traffic at the port of Lomé grew again last year

Logistics

Monday, 28 February 2022 14:31

Container traffic at the port of Lomé grew again last year

(Togo First) - Last year, 29.6 million tons of goods transited through the Port of Lomé, up 14% compared to 2020. The increase is mainly attributable to a new record of container traffic. The infrastructure processed 1.9 million TEUs in 2021, against 1.7 million TEUs in 2020 when this volume was also up despite the Covid-19 outbreak. The performance, attributed to a rebound in ship arrivals, pushed the Port of Lomé to the top 100 ports in the world, and Africa’s top 5.

Since 2013, Lomé has been slowly consolidating its position as the leading transshipment platform in the Gulf of Guinea. A progression that is mostly due to the Lomé Container Terminal (LCT), which is owned by MSC. The Italian-Swiss shipowner, which has set its sights on the Togolese logistics platform, is making it more than ever its regional hub. In this framework, it announced a major investment program worth €500 million. The first stage of the program, valued at €30 million, should be launched before the end of this year, to raise LCT’s capacity to 2.7 million TEUs per year.

Last Thursday, Edem Tengue, the Togolese Minister of Maritime Economy, received two additional mobile cranes for the port handler. The equipment should allow LCT to better meet the “needs generated by the sharp increase in activities,” at the port.

“The reception of these mobile cranes was an intermediate solution to support the large volume of containers in transit at the Port Autonome de Lomé,” the ministry wrote on its Facebook page.

Changes at the port of Lomé occur amid a raging competition for ports in the Gulf of Guinea. Chinese investors, notably, are the most eager to come ahead of the race. Meanwhile, LCT remains a transshipment platform par excellence and its owner, MSC, became the number one shipowner worldwide at the end of 2021.

The port of Lomé has two terminals, LCT which is owned by MSC, and another owned by Bolloré Africa Logistics. However, the latter is about to sell its assets to MSC, thus making it the sole master on board at the port; a situation that will certainly refuel debates on monopolies.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

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