Cargo traffic at Ghana’s seaports reduced by some 1.3 million tonnes in 2020 on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is according to recent data released by the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authourity (GPHA).
GPHA indicates that cargo traffic to Ghana fell from 27.7m tonnes in 2019 to 26.4m in 2020, representing a 4.7 percentage points decline on a year-on-year basis.
The decline also marks the first in annual cargo traffic drop since 2014.
According to the GPHA, the fall was driven by a steep decline—as much as 31.5 percent—in export cargo, which was partly offset by an 8.8 percent increase in import cargo together with higher transhipment and transit trade volumes.
Export cargo, it also notes, contracted from 10m tonnes in 2019 to 6.8m tonnes in 2020 while imports jumped from 16.2m tonnes to 17.7m tonnes within the period under review.
“The volume of cargo that was transhipped through the country’s ports—that is, cargo offloaded onto other vessels for further shipment—quadrupled from 86,813 tonnes to 366,718 tonnes, while transit cargo—that is, cargo headed for neighbouring countries—grew by 9.7 percent from 1.36m tonnes to approximately 1.5m tonnes,” noted the Authourity.
The data also revealed that the Tema and Takoradi ports experienced divergent fortunes in 2020.
Whereas traffic through Tema improved by 9.2 percent from 17.3m tonnes to 18.9m tonnes, traffic through Takoradi fell by 28 percent from 10.4m tonnes to 7.5m tonnes.
Takoradi’s marked reduction in tonnage was due to the slump in export cargo, since the port usually handles more exports than Tema.
In 2019, exports through Takoradi amounted to 7.5m tonnes, but however, plunged by 41.3 percent to 4.4m tonnes in 2020.
Maritime analysts have opined that decline in maritime traffic which was expected given the impact of the pandemic on global supply chains, did not however reach the depths feared, with import traffic remaining resilient to the economic disruptions caused by the pandemic.
