Athens Course TA20
Activities and economy of trade ports
Port Hubs: The African Situation
Group 14 –
Stijn Koshari & Tom Van der Voorde – KU Leuven
Introduction: Port hubs - hierarchy
During the previous decades, several ports have tried to become the world’s
major container port hub. However, none of them succeeded due to the diversity
and amount of asset markets. Ports in the world have developed a hierarchical
system in which there are some major world hubs (e.g. Shanghai, Hong Kong,
Singapore and Antwerp) and regional hubs.
The African Situation
Despite the fact that Africa is situated in the middle of some major shipping
lines, no big port hubs have emerged in the region. Still, there are some ports
which deliver big amounts of goods to the other African countries. These are
the so called regional port hubs. The biggest regional port hubs in Africa are
Lagos, Dakar, Dar Es Salaam, Port-Louis and Durban. But if we compare them
to the biggest ports in the world, they are approximately fifty times smaller.
Problems
The absence of major port hubs in Africa is accounted to the region’s severe
problems. First, the large import and low export African market leads to an imbalance in the load of incoming and outgoing ships, which is not very economic.
A second problem is the political instability. Many African countries (have) suffer(ed) from serious wars or piracy, something that is not very favourable to a
trading hub. In addition, there is a lot of corruption. The third major problem
is the underdevelopment of intermodal structures. Railways are old-fashioned
and date back to the colonial time, roads are demolished and not maintained
and vehicles and vessels are outdated. All this makes the region unsuitable for
a port hub. The port itself is also totally underdeveloped which makes it unreliable. There is no room for big vessels to come to the ports, there is poor
cargo handling and there are bureaucratic bottlenecks. The consequences of
these problems are an increase in dwell times, a rise of cost and an insufficient
capacity.
Reform - competition to become Africa’s major port hub
A couple of years ago, many African countries decided to reform in order to
solve these problems and become Africa’s major port hub. The amelioration
contains improvements of the existing infrastructures, dredging of the ports and
1
rehabilitation of the breakwaters. Governments make plans for new terminals
and even ports. Legislation is totally changed and ports are more and more
privatized; there is a shift from a service port system to a landlord system.
Nigeria
When looking to the reformation of trade ports, Nigeria has improved most
of all Sub-Saharan African countries. In order to checkmate other ports and
become the major hub of West and Central Africa, the country is currently
implementing projects in all its ports and is building two deep seaports.
References
Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic. 2009. Beyond the bottlenecks: Ports in Africa - Background Paper 8.
Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic. 2009. Beyond the bottlenecks: Ports in Africa - Background Paper 8 - Annexes: 134–142.
African Development Bank Group. (November 2012). Too many ports
handle Africa’s maritime trade traffic-few of them large enough to attract major
shipping lines. (http://www.infrastructureafrica.org/key-msg/sector/too-manyports-handle-africa%E2%80%99s-maritime-trade-traffic%E2%80%94few-themlarge-enough-attract-m).
Borderless. 2010. Promoting the Free Movement of Transport, Goods &
Persons: the 2nd joint report on road harrassment [sic].
Daily Champion. 11 February 2011. Nigeria: Berths Largest Vessel Ever.
Daily Champion. 11 February 2011. Nigeria: Ports Concessioning - NPA
Counts Blessings.
Dent, C.M. and Dosch, J. 2012. The Asia-Pacific, Regionalism and the
Global System. Elgar, Edward Publishing, Inc.: 269.
Marin, C. and Brunel, S. 2000. A continent exhausted by war and
famine. Le Monde diplomatique.
Notteboom, T. 2011. An application of multi-criteria analysis to the location of a container hub port in South Africa. Maritime Policy & Management:
The flagship journal of international shipping and port research 38: 51–79.
Spagnoli, F. 2008. Human Rights Facts (1) - Imperialism.
(http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/human-rights-facts-and-trivia1/ ).
Stenvert, R. and Penfold, A. (to Ocean Shipping Consultants). 2009.
Container Port Strategy - Emerging Issues.
This Day Live. 29 April 2012. Nigeria Moves to Claim African Port Hub
Status.
Wang, C. and Wang, J. 2011. Spatial pattern of the global shipping
network and its hub-and-spoke-system. Research in Transportation Economics
32: 54–63.
2