Cargo traffic through the country’s seaports has been tipped to grow by 10percent this year based on continued growth in exports trade and other trade enticing initiatives of the government.
Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Shippers’ Authority, Ms. Benonita Bismarck, at the recently held Shipping Quarter and Outlook for the year, said: “The year 2018 posted an appreciable growth in seaborne trade, reflecting the confidence in Ghana’s economy.
Consequently, we wish to project an overall cargo throughput growth of 10% for the year 2019. This is also premised on the expectation that the introduction of the First-Port Rule for the transit trade would be well managed in order not to deflect transit cargo to neighboring ports.”
The country’s two seaports handled combined cargo traffic of over 23million metric tonnes last year, representing an 8percent increase over the 21million metric tonnes that were recorded in 2017.
The Port of Tema handled 15.50 million metric tonnes of the total traffic, representing 67percent of the total seaborne trade, whilst the Port of Takoradi recorded 7.62 million metric tonnes, representing 33% of the total seaborne trade.
Transit/transshipment imports amounted to 1,043,039 metric tonnes whilst transit and transshipment exports were only 89,629 metric tonnes.
Total export trade volume for the same review period was 7.66 million metric tonnes, which was a 24.6% growth, and comprised 2.01 million metric tonnes of liner items, 344,174 metric tonnes of break bulk items, 5.15 million metric tonnes of dry bulk and 164,048 metric tonnes of liquid bulk.
Transit volume from the three landlocked countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, however, saw a 3.2 percent decline with a total of 996,969 metric tonnes in the year under review. It was comprised of imports of 879,935 metric tonnes and exports of 87,034 metric tonnes for 2018.
Container demurrage payments at the Ports of Tema and Takoradi reduced from US$76 million in 2017 to US$59 million in 2018.
However, general storage rent payments at the Ports of Tema and Takoradi increased from GHC48.1 million in 2017 to GHC49.9 million in 2018.
Ms. Bismarck said her outfit will continue to seek collaboration with other stakeholders to continue to play their respective roles to ensure a facilitated trade for the shipper.
“Shipper education will continue to remain a focal point of our activities and we will endeavor to educate shippers on the dos and don’ts of the clearance process and the need for shippers to begin their documentation processes for cargo clearance prior to the arrival of their cargo to reduce demurrage and rent payments,” she noted.