Attendees at a recent Transport Events webinar discussed how Africa’s ports can address the multiple challenges they face.
“African ports need to embrace innovation, automation and simplification,” Ramalingum Maistry, chairman of the Mauritius Ports Authority in Port Louis, told the webinar. Authorities have identified two top-level goals: increasing port throughput and improving terminal operations, he added.
Port authorities are considering ways to accelerate the flow of goods by cutting congestion in the chain, reported Maistry.
“By leveraging hub logistics, transportation management solutions and connected warehouse offerings, port authorities can accelerate the rate of information exchange across the multiple stakeholders in the port value chain and unlock the ability to conduct real-time performance monitoring of key assets,” he said.
On the second point, he was clearer.
“To improve terminal operations, African ports need to adopt automation as a means of standardizing and simplifying port operations,” he said.
Ports require a centralized approach to managing processes, enabled by a single platform for all automation efforts. This will allow them to handle unusual circumstances by pre-empting potential business disruption, recommending what he called “remediation actions” and facilitating communication between stakeholders along the value chain, he added.
While Maistry was short on specifics about how, and at which ports these goals are to be met, there was much more certainty of the problems they have. These he listed as “under-developed basic port and hinterland infrastructure, usage of outdated equipment, low levels of automation and container and cargo theft.”
This has produced huge problems for their users and shippers. Against Asia’s largely automated ports which give them a turnaround times of as little as seven hours, African ports provide, on average, five day turnarounds.
MICHAEL MACKEY
