In light of the rapid pace of infrastructure and transport developments across Africa, our Ports, Transport and Logistics (PTL) Sector Group is pleased to present Bowmans' latest PTL news round-up. Our regular round-ups bring you a selection of pan-African PTL-related stories and keep you up to date regarding developments in the space across Africa.

We draw on a network of multi-disciplinary experts across Africa in fields as diverse as project finance, construction and environmental law, to keep you in the know about developments and thought leadership in the PTL space.

The articles to which we refer readers are, unless stated otherwise, neither written nor edited by ourselves and appear in their original form. Bowmans does not necessarily agree with opinions expressed in those articles.

This edition includes news headlines and links to articles from a variety of sources, covering stories from Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.

For more information, please feel free to contact a lawyer in our Ports, Transport and Logistics Group.

Calls for public comment (South Africa):

  • Department of Transport's draft CMTP Decade Implementation Plan
    The Department of Transport has called on stakeholders to submit input or comments on the draft 2020 – 2030 Decade of the Comprehensive Maritime Transport Policy (CMTP) Implementation Plan by Friday 31 January 2020. A copy of the draft Implementation Plan is available here.
  • Review of the Port Tariff Methodology and call for submissions
    The Ports Regulator of South Africa has embarked on a process to review the Multi-Year Port Tariff Methodology. The Draft Port Tariff Methodology for Tariff Years 2021/22 – 2023/24 is now available on the Ports Regulator's website here. Interested parties/port users are invited to submit comments by close of business on Monday 3 February 2020.

News continues below:

Port of Djibouti looking to develop delayed LNG export terminal (Djibouti)
Source: Africa Ports (17 January 2019)
The Port of Djibouti in the Gulf of Aden near the southern entrance to the Red Sea is looking to develop a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal that was previously postponed. Read the full article here.

Ethiopian Airlines to Build a 'Next-Generation' Airport for Africa (Ethiopia)
Source: FTW Online (17 January 2019)
Ethiopian Airlines has announced plans to begin construction this year of what will be one of Africa's largest airports. Read the full article here.

Maputo container volumes up 53% (Mozambique)
Source: FTW Online (17 January 2019)
Container volumes at the Port of Maputo increased 53% last year, DP World Maputo has announced. The container terminal operator attributed the growth to ease of doing business following a complete overhaul of the terminal in 2018. Read the full article here.

Promoters of Maputo and Richards Bay LNG terminals insist projects can be 'complementary' (Mozambique and South Africa)
Source: Creamer Media's Engineering News (17 January 2019)
The promoters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals at Maputo, in Mozambique, and Richards Bay, in South Africa, insist that the two proposed projects can be complementary rather than competitive. Read the full article here.

Good year for Port Nacala, 16% increase on 2018 (Mozambique)
Source: Africa Ports (16 January 2019)
The Northern Development Corridor (CDN) reports that Nacala Port's miscellaneous cargo handling reached 2.2 million tonnes in 2019*, up 16% on the 1.9 million tonnes of the previous year. Read the full article here.

Neo-Panamax vessels now capable of docking at Tema MPS 3: three berths now available (Ghana)
Source: Africa Ports (16 January 2019)
Following the launching of two of the four Tema MPS Terminal 3 berths in July 2019, the MPS Terminal 3 has prompted several changes in the West African maritime industry where some of the shipping lines quickly deployed ships with capacities of 8,000 TEUs (Post Panamax II). Read the full article here.

Tema Port Terminal 3 rolls out more berthing capacity 7 months ahead of schedule (Ghana)
Source: Africa Ports (16 January 2019)
Since the successful opening of the new MPS Terminal 3 at Tema Port in June last year the project has continued to perform ahead of its deadline. Read the full article here.

Truckers suffer as Kenyan government increases support for standard gauge railway (Kenya)
Source: Africa Ports(16 January 2019)
With the Kenya government increasing its support for the standard gauge railway between the port of Mombasa and Nairobi, which has now been extended as far as Naivasha, the Kenya road transport industry faces having to reinvent itself. Read the full article here.

London Court orders Djibouti to restore container terminal concession to DP World (Djibouti)
Source: Africa Ports(15 January 2019)
DP World has won a further legal hearing against the Government of Djibouti over the Doraleh Container Terminal. A Tribunal of the London Court of International Arbitration ordered Djibouti to restore the rights and benefits under the 2006 Concession Agreement to DP World and Doraleh Container Terminal SA within two months, or pay damages. Read the full article here. Also reported in Creamer Media's Engineering News here.

Road and bridge projects to boost East African intra-trade (Kenya and Tanzania)
Source: Africa Ports (14 January 2019)
The African Development Bank (AfDB) and other international lenders including the EU and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have made available loans totalling €764 million (US$837.6m) that will be used to build transport infrastructure linking Kenya and Tanzania. Read the full article here.

US$390 million available for modernisation of Mauritania's Nouakchott Port (Mauritania)
Source: Africa Ports (14 January 2019)
The sum of US$390 million has been made available to modernise the Mauritanian port of Nouakchott making use of the public private partnership (PPP) method. Read the full article here.

Construction of Lamu port halted because of terror attack (Kenya)
Source: Africa Ports (14 January 2019)
Construction work at Kenya's new port of Lamu, where the first berth has been commissioned, came to a sudden halt a week ago when terrorists, believed to be from the al-Shabaab movement in nearby Somalia, attacked an overran a US/Kenyan military base. Read the full article here.

Port of Mombasa posts record numbers (Kenya)
Source: FTW Online (13 January 2019)
Cargo volumes moving through the port of Mombasa broke all records last year following the construction of a second container terminal, Kenya Port Authority (KPA) managing director Daniel Manduku said last week during a media briefing. Read the full article here. Also reported in Africa Ports here.

Tender process opens for Angolan Port Luanda Multi-Purpose Terminal (Angola)
Source: Africa Ports(13 January 2019)
On 16 December 2019 the Angolan Government launched an international public tender for the granting of a concession to operate and develop the Port of Luanda Multi-Purpose Terminal. Read the full article here.

Hapag-Lloyd to develop and grow presence in Africa: Opens Quality Service Centre in Port Louis (Mauritius)
Source: Africa Ports (13 January 2019)
German container shipping line Hapag-Lloyd says it intends developing and growing its presence in Africa and will look to help achieve this with a new Quality Service Centre (QSC) in Port Louis, Mauritius. Read the full article here.

Tanzania streamlines logistics throughput (Tanzania)
Source: FTW Online (10 January 2019)
The Tanzanian Shipping Agencies Corporation (Tasac) has announced that seven so-called "nuisance fees" have been scrapped in a bid to speed up forwarding and clearing. Read the full article here.

Jury's out on whether Kazungula Bridge will be completed in 2020 (Zambia and Botswana)
Source: FTW Online(10 January 2019)
Time will tell whether 2020 will finally see the opening of the much-vaunted Kazangula Bridge, a US$259.3-million linkage project launched in September 2014 that is well past its initial finalisation set down for 2018. Read the full article here.

ExxonMobil Secures Exploration Acreage Offshore Egypt (Egypt)
Source: Africa Ports (7 January 2019)
On 30 December ExxonMobil announced that it had secured more than 1.7 million acres for exploration offshore Egypt. Read the full article here.

Douala Container Terminal concession back in limbo: Court annuls concession procedure (Cameroon)
Source: Africa Ports(7 January 2019)
The fate of the Douala Container terminal appears to be back in limbo as a result of a court order annulling the procedure used in awarding the concession for the Douala Bonabéri port's container terminal. Read the full article here.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.