GPHA records 59 per cent increase in transit trade

The Golden Jubilee Terminal at the Tema Port in 2016, recorded a 59 per cent increase in the number of transit trade it handled during the year.

A total of 44,000 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit (TEUs) were handled showing a 59 per cent increment over the 27,810 worked on in 2015.

Mrs Esther Gyebi-Donkor, Golden Jubilee Terminal Manager, disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency.

Mrs Gyebi-Donkor attributed the increase mainly to the one-stop service delivery being provided at the terminal adding that they used to transfer and handle transit at Terminal one which was the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) side at the Meridian and Ports Services (MPS) terminal before clients could take delivery.

That she said, became double handling which led to the increase of cost in clearing transit containers as well as taking a longer time to complete the process.

She explained that before moving to the transit trade to the Terminal on September 5, 20016, clients had to pay handling charges with MPS as well as some level handling charged to GPHA.

“Because we have to transfer the containers to MPS, we have to bring them to our platform, open them, and provide labour and machinery to unstuff the containers into their trucks before they can leave”, she noted.

She indicated that GPHA management therefore decided to operate the terminal where it could transfer the containers from MPS without the client paying to obtain an entry permit.

The Golden Jubilee Terminal Manager added that under the new arrangement, clients only paid for one handling charge in respect to the unsnuffing and transferring of the containers from the port.

She stated that instead of spending about one week to clear the transit, clients now use less than three days to do so due to the availability of customs examination, customs preventive for the final release of the container, as well as a parking space for the trucks at the terminal.

Mrs Gyebi-Donkor added that operations of the Terminal had helped the vessel operation in the port, noting that the port for some time now was getting congested as a lot of delivery service was being done in there leading to increase in its bulk cargo handling in recent times.

The Manager observed that because most of them would like to go directly, it meant that while the vessel was at berth, the trucks must be made available to load the cargo and be cleared from the port.

She revealed that the more the delay in the transfer, the more the vessel delayed at the berth leading to high cost.

The Terminal, she indicated, currently had over 820 plucks working making it easier to pluck in reefer containers which TEUs has also increased over time.

“I can tell you that we have had over a 100 per cent increase over the 2015 figures of reefer containers, the more we open up, the more we get and that is the reason why we are doing this port expansion”, he stated. GNA