The location and nature of transhipment hubs serving the West African port market is changing and the progress of new projects has been stymied, says maritime analyst Drewry in its latest Container Insight Weekly report.
But while most West African port projects are in uncertain waters right now, in the long run major new port projects will make sense, although it is unlikely that all the proposed projects can succeed. Much will depend on carrier backing, says Drewry, pointing out that in in this respect MSC is leading the way in terms of developing hubs within the region.
While overall regional activity has fallen by nearly 13% since 2014, MSC has been increasing the capacity on its single Asia-West Africa loop, where the average vessel size has moved from 9 501 to 11 374 TEUs – a 20% increase.
In first-quarter 2016, a single vessel of 11 660 TEUs was operating as the largest vessel in the loop, while in first-quarter 2017 there were three vessels of over 13 000 TEUs. “The calculated capacity increase of 20% on the loop will therefore only have an impact if MSC can fill the extra capacity on the occasional sailings of the larger vessels. The introduction of a small number of these much larger vessels is probably because of the need to find employment for vessels of this size, displaced by new buildings from their main East-West services,” says a Drewry spokesperson.
Maersk and CMA CGM removed one loop from their Asian services in March 2017, leaving them with four. While various adjustments were made to port coverage on the remaining loops, this represented a 20% reduction in the total capacity offered by the two lines, no doubt as a response to the falling trade volumes.