Dynamar has released its latest container market report which looks at three African regions: East Africa, Indian Ocean and Southern Africa.
The report highlights East and Southern Africa container growth, China’s exports to East Africa, as well as Sub Saharan Africa’s largest port in South Africa.
Combined, East and Southern Africa, including islands across the Indian Ocean, have seen full container volumes growing by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 9% since 2010.
This backed up by the value of its merchandise trade expanding by more than 26% to US$385 billion over the same period.
Mombasa in Kenya is expecting its current one million TEU throughput to double by 2020 and is building a new 1.2 million TEU container terminal, after recently having expanded its existing one.
Read: Dynamar: Worldwide Trade in Limbo
Mauritius Container Terminal at Port Louis is being expanded to accommodate the expected increase in throughput by 2020, which will be around double the present volume, of which 55% is transhipment.
South Africa is the largest of the three littoral Southern African countries and the single African G-20 member. The building of a new 9.6 million TEU capacity port at the site of the former airport has been continuously delayed but is now due to start construction by 2021.
East Africa currently counts just two active coastal countries, Kenya and Tanzania. With a population of over 200 million people collectively, Dynamar argues that this indicates the increasing pressure on ports to serve an economically growing inland area.
Read: Tanzania Suspends $10bn Mega Port
As the region’s combined port throughput approaches 8 million TEU, there is an increasing opportunity for growth in the 23 different African countries.
If East and Southern Africa container trades were to increase, the relevant African TEU volume would be expected to grow to 42 million TEU, up 1,200% from the 3.2 million TEU of 2014.
Read a Technical Paper on The Economic Contribution of Ports and Terminals
