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Cameroon: Import-exports slowdown at port of Douala

Cameroon: Import-exports slowdown at port of Douala
  • Comments   -   Sunday, 13 July 2014 16:29

(Business in Cameroon) - The International Maritime Transportation Facilitation Committee (FAL Committee), a consultation platform of maritime sector entities, held an “urgent” meeting on July 1, 2014 in the Cameroonian economic capital in order to discuss “the crisis the Douala Port has been facing for 9 months,” states a release published by the organisation’s president, André Fotso, who is also president of GICAM, the business leader association.

This “disconcerting situation at Douala Port” involves “the bottlenecking of the area and other surrounding factors which are causing a slowdown in handling and also extended waiting times for ships at port. This leads to  exponential increases in waiting times and cost, both for imports and exports, with negative repercussions for the economy and Cameroon’s image at a time when the government and stakeholders are seeking to accelerate growth,” the FAL Committee goes on to explain.

At the root of this situation, the Committee finds that there is “the surpassing of the port’s structural capacity, the surpassing of the various concession holders’ operational capacities, the sudden influx of products to be processed, particularly wood, after the re-opening of the Central African border, the weak application of some procedures and the inadequacy of some in this congested situation…”

In addition, the FAL Committee notes, “the holding of damaged merchandise (for example, cement imported from 2010), the recurring breakdowns of the scanner though it is a facilitation tool, the extended and disproportionate occupying of space by trucks sometimes waiting to be equipped with GPS capabilities, outstanding deposits which stifle customs brokers’  cash-flow and slowdown the release of merchandise.”

Facing this litany of problems, participants at the July 1 crisis meeting, “identified exceptional measures (14 in total) to be adopted in the coming days to resolve the current situation.” The FAL Committee explains that these include the temporary suspension of logs on the grounds, the lightening of issuance procedures for wood loading documentation, the provision of new storage areas for merchandise, the re-opening of the Kribi wood park, the removal of the cement stocked since 2010 and improving the operational hours at the port.  

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