Demurrage payments register 25.9% decline

Demurrage payments by shippers at the Tema and Takoradi Ports recorded a 25.9 percent decline in the first half of this year, the Ghana Shippers Authority (GSA) has disclosed.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GSA, Benonita Bismarck, who spoke to journalists Friday in Accra, said total demurrage payments in the first half amounted to $28,512,541 compared to $38,494,314 recorded for the first half of 2017.

“Unfortunately, rent payments by shippers at the Tema and Takoradi Ports recorded a rise in the first half of 2018. Total rent payments in the first half of 2018 amounted to GH¢22,669,488, representing 11.9 percent increase compared to the first half in 2017 which recorded GH¢20,292,755.”

She called for increased shipper education and sensitization in the area of non-containerised cargo such as unpacked vehicles and other general cargo to bring down the rent figures.

Throughput

Mrs Bismarck said cargo throughput for the first half of this year posted an increase of 14.3 percent compared to the same period in 2017.

Total import and export trade volume for the period increased by 14.44 percent compared to last year’s while total transit/transshipment trade volume in the first half increased by 11.49 percent over that of the previous year’s.

Ports share

Cargo throughput for the seaports of Ghana (i.e. Tema and Takoradi) for the first half of this year was 11.75 million metric tons.

For the Tema Port, it was 8.1 million metric tons, representing 69 percent of the total, while the Takoradi Port recorded 3.65 million metric tons, representing 31 percent of the total seaborne trade.

Transit/transshipment imports amounted to 522,012 metric tons while on the export side, it recorded 49,042 metric tons.

Import/seaborne trade

Total imports for the review period was 7.16 million metric tons comprising 2.93 million metric tons of liner cargo; 863,751 metric tons of break bulk; 1,708,944 metric tons of dry bulk cargo and 1,656,733 metric tons of liquid bulk imports.

Majority of Ghana’s seaborne imports came from the Far East range, representing about 27 percent of the total import trade.

Africa was next with 25 percent share of Ghana’s import trade.

Imports from Africa was 1,802,427, an increase of 170,477 metric tons or (10.4 percent) over the previous year’s figure of 1,631,950 metric tons.

The major commodities imported from the Africa range, which experienced significant increases were petroleum products, clinker and crude oil.

Export trade

The total export volume for the first half of this year was 4.03 million metric tons. This represents 33.5 percent increase over the first half of 2017.

This was made up of 1,173,024 metric tons of liner items; 148,972 metric tons of break bulk items; 2,560,776 metric tons of dry bulk and 144,023 metric tons of liquid bulk.

4.03 million metric tons of seaborne exports for the first half went to various destination of the world.

Majority of the exports went to the Far East, which received a total of 2,083,474 metric tons (i.e. 52 percent of total exports) while the other range received a total of 1,252,922 metric tons or (31 percent of total exports).