Official first quarter trade figures released by the Ghana Shippers Authority has revealed the severity of the coronavirus pandemic on the country’s dominant maritime sector with significant decline in all aspects of the business.
Total volume of cargo handled by the country’s two seaports in the first quarter of this year for both containerised and general cargo decreased by a whopping 44.9percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020, the data showed.
The figure for the period was 3.8 million metric tonnes compared with the 6.9 million metric tonnes recorded for same period 2019.
This was comprised import trade volume of 2.7 million metric tonnes, exports trade volume of 996,331 metric tonnes as well as total transit and transshipped cargo.
Total transit, which is cargo moved to the landlocked countries, and transshipment, which is cargo moved to neighbouring ports by sea was 79,629 metric tonnes.
Both imports, exports and transit and transshipment recorded negatives of 24.5percent, 66.1percent and 76.1percent respectively having recorded 3.6 million metric tonnes, 2.9 million metric tonnes and 333,768 metric tonnes for same period 2019.
The Port of Tema handled 2.96 million metric tonnes of total sea-borne trade, representing 79percent whilst the remaining 804,437 metric tonnes representing 21percent was handled by the Port of Takoradi.
The harsh impact of the pandemic on the local shipping industry extended to the transit trade partners with that side of the busines seeing a record 74percent fall compared to that of last year.
Total transit volume for the three landlocked countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger amounted to 72,212 metric tonnes for the period.
This figure is comprised of total transit import 54,581 metric tonnes, representing close to 79percent decrease over the 256,515 metric tonnes recorded for same period 2019 as well as the total transit export figure of 17,631 metric tonnes, representing a negative six percent dip over the 18,824 metric tonnes recorded in the previous period.
COVID-19 has greatly affected global trade negatively with global merchandise trade falling by 3percent year-on-year in quarter-one 2020, according to the World Trade Organisation.
The first quarter 2020 global merchandise trade volume also saw a 2percent decline from that of last quarter 2019 with this downward trend expected to continue into the later part of the year 2020.