Check out Africa’s Top 5 Largest Ports
Have a look at the ports Africa uses to handle more than 90 percent of its cargo. Let’s dive into Top five!
The African continent uses sea cargo to handle more than 90 percent cargo and its imports and exports from across the globe. Being an exceptionally large content out of the seven in total, Africa has many exceptions, where Suez Canal in Egypt is one of these exceptions.
It is a 102 miles long man-made channel connects two seashores and used for cargo ships coming from Mediterranean sea and red sea region to Arabian sea. This canal saves hundreds of miles travel for those ships.
Going forward, the majority of countries in the African region are not that developed in the many fields of life and need innovation to be done, the maritime field is one of them. It needs development and innovation.
Africa is more than 6 percent of the total surface of the planet earth and more than 70 percent states in African region are directly connected to the sea and this way they hold more than 6 percent waterways of the maritime industry.
More than 6 percent of total traffic out of which half of the container traffic of the world cargo intercepted by the African ports. We have listed top 5 ports of Africa with lots of information about the ports and their facilities and definitely their capacity is also stated below. Let’s see what these ports are and which countries are hosting them.
Port of Durban, South Africa
Country: Republic of South Africa
Province or District: KwaZulu Natal
Town or City (Closest location): Durban
Port’s Complete Name: Port of Durban
Managing Company or Port Authority: Transnet National Ports Authority
Average vessel calls per year: 4,554
Container Traffic (TEUs): 40,477,697
Bulk (Million Tons / year): 34,205,900
Conventional Berths; 31
Berth sizes: 228-meter x 9.6 meter deep berths
Container berths: 10
Berth sizes: 295-meter x 11.9 meter deep berths
Bulk Liquid handling Berths: 9
Berth sizes: 228-meter x 12.8 meter deep berths
container Facilities Available: Yes
Container Freight Station (CFS): Yes
Refrigerated Container Stations: Yes
Daily Takeoff Capacity (Containers per day): No
Number of Reefer Stations (connection points): 80
Cooling chambers: 11 x 27,000 m³
Pre-cooling funnels: 69 x 9,500 m³
Open storage: 4,000 m³
Multi-Purpose Terminals:
Total Storage capacity = 42,000 m³
Load rate (Agricultural) = 500 MT / hr.
Draught available = 9.6 m
Let’s start with Africa’s most popular and most active general cargo port and it is situated in the South African region, it is Durban port. The Durban port is known as the port of the Durban and situated in the central business region of the Durban. This port is the most important seaport of South Africa and plays an imperative role in the economy of the region.
The port of Durban is Africa’s largest container ports and handles the most amount of sea traffic than all other seaports of South Africa. On average, the port of Durban hosts more than 4,500 container ships and 996,000 containers every year. More than 45 billion dollars in-out comes through the port of Durban.
According to the Durban port management authority, the port of Durban handles more than 44 million tons of cargo every year and it is increasing every year. It is one of the most active ports in the African region and operates 24/7-365 and its channel depth is just under 13 meters on the entrance and it is more than 220 meters wide at the same time.
The width has been widened to 222 meters at the tiniest point. Recently the entrance has been deepened to 19 meters while shallowing to not less than 16 meters inside the bay to handle larger vessels.
The regular callers on the Durban port are 300 meters long and 37-meter beam carriers, they regularly call on the port. In the daylight, port authority restricts the ships to 243m and 35m due to lower draught levels, reduced to 11.9m to 12.2m.
During the night, restrictions changed to 200m and beam height to 26m when draught remained to 11.6 meters. The larger vessels carrying around 230,000 dwt can enter the Durban harbor region but the ships larger than 230,000 dwt handled by the outer anchorage.
The largest vessel handled by the Cargo to Africa is the ULCC tanker weighing 564,650 dwt. This vessel has a length of 458 meters and height of 69 meters received underwater repairs in the outer anchorage region. The terminals and cargo anchorage have different capacities to handle the cargo. There are two types of cargo terminals including one for general purposes and other for grains and bulk handling.
Multipurpose Terminal:
The city terminal or the Multi-Purpose Terminal is known as the Maydon Wharf 5 used for the bulk loading and unloading facilities on the port. This port has following capacities
Total Storage capacity = 42,000 m³
Load rate (Agricultural) = 500 MT / hr.
Draught available = 9.6 m
Subjected to the port authority approval, the vessels also use the rising tide for loading. On the other hand, grain and bulk handling terminals have following facilities. The Maydon Wharf 8 is a dedicated elevator agriculture grain and bulk cargo handling facility for grain products.
Capacity = 34,560 MT
Loading rate = 1,200 MT / hr.
Draught = 10.3 m, 11.5 on rising tide
Discharge rate = 275 MT / hr.
Being the largest container port in the African region, it is necessary to discuss the container terminals as well. The container terminal has been upgraded recently and the terminal capacity has been optimized with more sophisticated equipment. The terminal has 20 straddle carriers and three quayside cranes. The upgrade has increased the capacity to 1.6 million tons from 1.3 million tons every year.
African Seaports are bit slower in the operations and they normally work on 7 to 20 moves per hour, however, the global standard is a bit higher than these cranes. Global standard is 25 moves per hour per crane. Durban port including the South African ports handles more than 23 percent of the total container cargo in Africa.
Port of Kilindini Harbour Mombasa, Kenya
Country: Kenya
Province or District: county of Mombasa
Town or City (Closest location): Mombasa
Port’s Complete Name: Kilindini Harbour, Mombasa
Managing Company or Port Authority: Kenya Ports Authority
Average vessel calls per year: 1340
Container Traffic (TEUs): 894,000
Bulk and breakbulk (Million Tons/year): 30,920,900
Conventional Berths; 23
Berth sizes: 2080 meter x 10-13.5 meter deep berths
Container berths: 6
Berth sizes: 1204 meter x 13.5 meter deep berths
Bulk multipurpose Berths: 17
Berth sizes: 2080 meter x 12.8 meter deep berths
Container Facilities Available: Yes
Container Freight Station (CFS): Yes
Refrigerated Container Stations: no
Daily Take Off Capacity (Containers per day): 670
Number of Reefer Stations (connection points): 120
Bagged Cargo stations: 10
Bagged Cargo Station Area: 90,597 sq. meters
General Cargo stations: 10
General Cargo Station Area: 90,597 sq. meters
Mombasa port is approximately midway between Middle East ports on the red sea and South African port of Durban. The Mombasa port is one of the largest ports in the African region, indeed the largest port in the east African region. The Mombasa port is Kenya’s largest port and works as the main gateway to central Africa and eastern part of the continent. This port serves more than 120 million population of the hinterlands including Burundi, eastern DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Somalia, and the northern part of Tanzania.
With the length of 7 nautical miles and a width of 300 meters, the Mombasa port has a maximum depth of 15 meters and inner harbor tidal range of 3.5 meters. The port has more than 19 berths where different terminals are constructed to handle bulk cargo, grain cargo, and oil cargo. On the other hand, there are 4 container berths to handle container cargo including 20 to and 40 teu containers. At the same time, Mombasa port has 12 berths for general cargo handling as well.
The recent development work on the port has increased the modern look. Port has new equipment and new main entrance channel to handle larger vessels. The port has the ability to handle most advanced Panamax vessels. The Mombasa port is ranked at 117th and in the African ports, its grade is 5th. There are many bottlenecks which are still restricting the operations of the port.
- For specialized services port has fewer berths
- Manual labor affecting quick services
- Rainy season is a big game changer at the port. It slows discharge operations,
- Timely clearance required correct documentation
- Average wait time is still more than 3 days
The port has six container berths and all these berths have an open seafront of more than 1204 meters where two container cranes have been installed to load and unload containers. These cranes are fully loaded with most modern gears and gadgets to speed up the operations on the port. The modern cranes are capable of making 25 moves per hour and this world standard for fast business operations at the ports.
Port of Djibouti
Country: Djibouti
Province or District: Djibouti
Town or City (Closest location): Djibouti
Port’s Complete Name: Port of Djibouti
Managing Company or Port Authority: Djibouti Ports Authority
Average vessel calls per year: 1577
Container Traffic (TEUs): 744,000
Bulk and breakbulk (Million Tons/year): 3,772,900
Conventional Berths; 29
Bagging line capacity: Berth 15.
Discharge with silo availability option; 7 MT/day
Average discharge rate: 300 MT per shift
Warehouse storage capacities: 70,000 MT
Bulk Fertilizer Discharge Rate; 3.5mt per day
Silo availability option; Berth 14
Container Facilities Available 20ft: Yes
Container Facilities Available 40ft: Yes
Container Freight Station (CFS) 20ft: Yes
Container Freight Station (CFS) 40ft: Yes
Refrigerated Container Stations 20ft: Yes
Refrigerated Container Stations 20ft: Yes
Djibouti is an important country in the African region and its importance increased because of military operations through the ports of Djibouti. Djibouti ports own a crucial standing in geostrategic, military and economic terms. The Ethiopian trade and transshipment of goods pass through the port of Djibouti. The natural protection of the Djibouti waters and excellent nautical conditions play an imperative role in the breakwater structure and the coral reef colonies near the port break up the water agitation and resultantly they offer excellent conditions for shipping. They offer quiet and deep water in the port. The anchorage depth of more than 10-40 meters can be used and it is even protected by the reefs. These reefs also protect the coastal areas from pollution and these are the only ports where agents need to send manifest 48 hours before the call of the ship.
The DP world management has improved the port performance to the utmost level since their partnership started in 2011. They have introduced different management systems and international managerial expertise to handle the port operations, security, and safety matters and the training of the staff. By these efforts from DP world, the Djibouti port has compliant with the ISPS international ship port facility. More than 28000 security accreditations from the register of Lloyds have been received by the port of Djibouti.
Lagos, Nigeria
Country: Nigeria
Province or District: Apapa Local Government
Town or City (Closest location): Lagos Island
Port’s Complete Name: Port of Djibouti
Managing Company or Port Authority: APM Terminals/Nigeria Port Authority{NPA}
Average vessel calls per year: 397
Container Traffic (TEUs): 465,000
Conventional Berths; 4
Berth sizes: 1005 meter x 10-13.5 meter deep berths
container berths: 4
Berth sizes: 1005 meter x 13.5 meter deep berths
Containers Facilities Available for 20ft & 40ft; Yes
Containers Freight Station available for 20ft & 40ft; Yes
Refrigerated Container Stations available for 20ft & 40ft; Yes
Daily containers take-off capacity of both 20ft and 40ft Between 100 & 300
Number of Reefer Stations (connection points); 620 reefer plugs that serve both 20’s & 40’s
The port of the Lagos is the economic hub of Nigeria and it is the main player in the GDP growth of the country. The port of Lagos is also known as the Lagos Port Complex of Apapa. This port is located in Apapa area of Lagos in the south-west of Nigeria. The port operational structure is based on the berths and cargo handling stacking along with massive cargo storage areas.
The port of Lagos is one of the leading ports in the African region and it is one of the busiest ports as well. The Nigerian port authority controls the port operations by splitting the port into three different divisions. The Lagos port division is the main section of the port and it is a channel next to the Lagos Island. Apapa port is the site for container terminals and tin can port, these sites are located in Badagry Creek.
Suez Canal, Egypt
Country; Egypt
Province or District; Suez
Town or City (Closest location) with Distance (km); Suez
Port’s Complete Name; Port of Suez (before Port Tewfiq)
Managing Company or Port Authority; Red Sea Port Authority
Vessel Calls; 300
Container Traffic (TEUs); 4,200,000
Handling Figures Bulk and Break Bulk; Bulk (MT) 19,154,524
Conventional Berth; 48
Berth length; 6532 sq. meter
Berth depth; 12.81
Container Berths; 4
Berth size; 732 sq. meter
Berth depth; 12.49
Silo Berths; 3
Berth size; 695 sq. meter
Berth depth; 10.00
The Suez Canal is a canal connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Gulf of Suez through its 101 miles length. This is also called a northern branch of the red sea. The port is also located in the northern part of the canal.
This area is situated in the southern gate if the canal. It is also an imaginary border extending from Ras Masala to Ras El-Sadat along the canal. The northern coast of the area included in the region till the canal starts. The canal was started in 1869 and since its launch; it has allowed ships to use a shorter route between Europe and Asia.
This canal has reduced thousands of miles distance and skipped the navigation around African continent and reduced the sea voyage between the Arabian Sea and Europe. The SCADA or the Suez Canal Axis development program aimed at the development and the expansion of the canal. This canal will be further expanded under this project to facilitate the sea traffic.
The passenger vessels transit system has been controlled at the port of the Suez quay and it accommodates all the passenger transit of up to 10 meters. There are no restrictions applied to the 8.2-meter ships and they can enjoy a free float in the canal.
However, a written application to the SCA needs to be submitted with the number of passengers on board. The canal authority also demands a written proof of the activities of the passengers on the ship in the same application that who they are and why they are on the ship.
The port authority listens to the ship on the radio frequency of 156,800 MHz for security purposes as there was a threat to the canal in previous years. The port handles more than 970 million tons of cargo on average every year and it is a midway stop to all traffic between Europe and South Asia.
