From an upside of 3,064 vessels calls in 2010, the number of vessels that berth at the country’s ports dropped to 2,737 in 2020, the lowest in a decade after a period of inconsistence in vessel traffic year-on-year, analysis of a 10-year port traffic data has shown.
Despite the significant drop in the number of liners, the volume of cargo they bring to the ports has seen sustained growth within the period under review, according to the data released by the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, the nation’s ports operator.
An inbound cargo traffic of 17.7million metric tonnes recorded in 2020 was the highest so far in the last decade, with the number growing consistently from the 8.5million metric tonnes that was recorded 10 years earlier.
Compared with the 2019 numbers, import traffic for last year went up by 8.8percent and 8.6percent for the ports of Tema and Takoradi with both ports recording increases of 1.2million metric tonnes and 233,421 metric tonnes respectively in a space of one year.
The data also showed that the coronavirus pandemic curtailed the sustained year-on-year growth in general cargo traffic figures, which combines both import and export data.
Total cargo traffic to the nation’s seaports rose steadily from 12.7million metric tonnes in 2010 to 27.7million metric tonnes in 2019 to hit 26.3million metric tonnes in the pandemic year.
The 2020 figure was a loss of some 1.3million metric tonnes, which is a 4.7percent drop from the previous year’s numbers.
According to the data, almost every sub-sector of the shipping business including transit has seen significant yearly growth in numbers from 2015 to date.
From a little over 300,000metric tonnes a decade ago, transit cargo averaged at 646,758metric tonnes between 2011 and 2016 before hitting the millions in 2017 with 1.24million metric tonnes, continuing on that trend to end 2020 with 1.5million metric tonnes.
Growth of the transhipment sub-sector, which involves the carting of goods by small ships to the nation’s sister port countries, has been inconsistent over the period but that aspect of the shipping business saw its biggest jump in 2020, moving from 86,813metric tonnes in 2019 to 366,718metric tonnes represent a 322percentage growth in a year.
Generally, the data paints a bright outlook for the country’s maritime trade and logistics industry, a feat that hinges largely on sustained government investments in port capacity, berth depth and other trade facilitation interventions.