APM Terminals is investing billions of dollars in West African seaports. However, they choose not to do this for Lagos, the current (much-maligned) container port hub for the region.
In Liberia, Maersk's terminal division has put $110 million into its port at Monrovia in line with a concession agreement with the government. Country director George Adjei stated that these expenditures include $50 million for wharf improvements and $60 million for additional equipment. The investment is already near the total amount that APMT promised to put into the port over the entirety of its 25-year lease.
APMT and its partners are also spending $1.5 billion on a greenfield multi-purpose port in Tema, Ghana, located on a site adjacent to the current seaport. Tema's port handles about 70 percent of Ghana's trade, and it is overwhelmed by cargo traffic.
The new facility will have 3.5 million TEU of capacity, 17 berths and enough depth for neopanamaxes of up to 13,000 TEU - many times larger than the biggest vessels that currently call at Tema. About 20 percent of the total investment will go not to the port, but to improvements to the highway that connects Tema with Ghana's capital, Accra. Construction on the port is under way, and it is expected to open next year.
APM Terminals also holds an existing lease at the Apapa terminal in Lagos, Nigeria, the busiest container terminal in all of West Africa. However, it has not announced major plans to invest in its operations there. Lagos is notoriously congested, due in large part to the unusually poor state of the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway. Potholes give sections of the highway the appearance of an offroad racetrack, gridlock is a near-permanent condition and truck drivers routinely park their vehicles and take up residence in the road. When traffic is at its worst, car and minibus drivers have taken to driving on the wrong side, headed against the flow, in order to bypass jammed lanes. In July, Nigeria's government reportedly blamed Maersk and Cosco for the congestion.
Source: maritime-executive.com
