Ivory Coast crisis puts pressure on Tema port

Vessels carrying cargo originally scheduled for the landlocked countries have been compelled by the on-going mutiny in Cote d'Ivoire to discharge at the Tema port.

The situation is gradually putting pressure at the berthing points at the port, Mr Cletus Kuzagbe, Operations Manager of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) told the Ghana News Agency in an interview on Monday after a visit to the port that showed increase in traffic.

At the moment, he said, the GPHA is capable of handling the situation but should the situation become unbearable for the Tema port alone to handle, the sister port at Takoradi may be asked to assist to ease the pressure.

He however, stated that they had been anticipating the situation because, since the mutiny started in that country representatives of the Shippers Council for the various landlocked countries had informed the GPHA to expert diverted vessels carrying cargo for those countries.

So far, the MV IST, a vessel from the Far East, which was scheduled to discharge rice for Mali and Niger through the Cote d'Ivoire discharged 6,000 tonnes of rice for Ghana and was compelled to discharge the remaining 13,000 tonnes at the Port.

Another vessel, MV Blanden Delmas, detailed for Burkina Faso is also discharging 2,500 tonnes of flour Two other vessels, MV Rays and MV Tina Two, carrying 10,500 tonnes and 5,000 tonnes of rice respectively, which were originally at anchorage at Abidjan waters diverted their routes and are waiting at the anchorage at Tema to berth at the port to discharge for Mali and Niger.

He said GPHA is carrying out these jobs in addition to its normal vessel calls at the port. Mr Kuzagbe therefore, advised owners of the diverted cargoes to provide trucks to deliver the goods directly when they are being discharged from the port to the various destinations.

In view of the mutiny, the trucks would be compelled to go through Ghana and that would prolong the journey instead of the short cut through Abidjan.