Ghana Ports trade boom

Ghana, in the first quarter of this year, recorded a total of 4.1 million metric tonnes of maritime trade.

The Ghana Shippers Authority says this was made up of about 3.1 million metric tonnes of imports and 1.0 million tonnes of exports.

A comparison of the 2011 performance to that of 2010 showed an increase of about 21 percent in the total trade as depicted in figure 1.

The port of Tema handled more than 72 percent of the total trade which amounted to about 2.96 million metric tonnes, while the port of Takoradi handled the remaining 1.14 million metric tonnes representing 28 percent of total trade for the period.

Total imports for the review period was 26 percent more than what was obtained in 2010 for the same period. Total exports also increased, by about 9 percent over the 2010 tonnage.

According to the Authority, total transit trade for the review period amounted to 168,978 metric tonnes. This was about 58 percent more than recorded for the same period in 2010. The tonnage for the review period was made up of 160,802 metric tonnes of imports and 8,176 metric tonnes of exports, representing a 16 percent decline.

Total Import for the review period was about 3.1 million metric tonnes. This comprised of 1.4 million metric tonnes of liner items representing 46.84 percent, while 887,109 metric tonnes of dry bulk items represented 28.99 percent and 739,428 metric tonnes of liquid bulk items represented 24.17 percent respectively.

Maritime imports for the review period increased by more than 26 percent from what was obtained in the 2010 period; the same applied to the various types of import trade, with dry bulk import increasing by 17 percent and liquid bulk by 31 percent.

The Authority disclosed that more of the maritime imports for the first quarter came from the Far East and the Northern Europe ranges, each of which recorded 768,515 metric tonnes or 25 percent of total import and 658,882 metric tonnes or 22 percent of total import respectively for the review period.

Imports from the other ranges recorded more than 501,800 metric tonnes or about 16 percent of the total import trade for the review period, followed by the Mediterranean Europe range with 456,891 million metric tonnes representing about 15 percent.

The Africa range recorded more than 419,100 metric tonnes or about 14 percent, with the North American and the UK ranges recording about 7 percent and 2 percent respectively.

The statistics indicated that the total export trade for the review period amounted to about 1.0 million metric tonnes.

This was made up of about 481,043 metric tonnes or 45 percent of liner items, 538,380 metric tonnes (about 51%) of dry bulk items, and 29,014 metric tonnes or about 3 percent of liquid bulk items.

Compared to the same period in 2010, the review period recorded an over-9 percent increase in the total export trade.

The liner trade and the dry bulk trade recorded 4.8 percent and 9.3 percent increases over the 2010 tonnages respectively, while the liquid bulk trade recorded an increase of over 300 percent.

The 1.0 million metric tonnes of maritime exports recorded for the period was shipped to various destinations in the world. The majority of items exported went to the Northern Europe and the Far East ranges.

The Northern Europe range received a total of 397,721 metric tonnes representing 38 percent of total exports, while the Far East range had a tonnage of 389,884 metric tonnes or 37 percent of total export.

The Authority explained that a total of 117,913 metric tonnes, which amounted to 11 percent, was shipped to the Mediterranean Europe range followed by the other ranges which had 42,749 metric tonnes representing 4 percent.

The United Kingdom range recorded 39,635 metric tonnes or 4 percent of the total maritime exports and the North America range received 3 percent (28,735 metric tonnes), while the Africa range received a total of 31,800 metric tonnes or over 3 percent of total maritime export.

The Authority stated that the total transit trade for the period was 168,978 metric tonnes comprising 160,802 metric tonnes of import items representing about 95 percent and 8,176 metric tonnes of export items.

The total transit tonnage was about 59 percent more than last year’s figure. Most of the transit countries recorded increases in their performance, with the neighbouring landlocked countries of Burkina Faso and Niger showing increases of 53 percent and 345 percent in their transit trade while Mali recorded an increase in tonnage (18,438m/t) of 4 percent compared to 2010.