(Business in Cameroon) - The Port Authority of Kribi (PAK) announced it will resume its Asia-West Africa Services (ASAF) at the Kribi deep seaport on August 8, 2020, after being suspended in 2019.

In that framework, four vessels are expected next month. According to Habib Iya, head of the PAK’s sales and marketing department, the resumption of the ASF service is the result of lobbying carried out by the port authority of Kribi ‘in close collaboration with KCT, concessionaire of the container terminal, and CMA-CGM’s local teams.’ “The tariff adjustments carried out by various actors and the arrival of key players like Maersk, thanks to which the Kribi port is a viable stop point, contributed to it as well," he added.

Before its suspension in 2019, ASAF services used to stopover at Kribi weekly. Kribi port was then the Central African distribution port serving Asian ports with 8,000-TEUs ships. The containers unloaded at the PAK were then dispatched to secondary ports via feeders or a second maritime line to Europe.

However, Habib Iya reveals, the ASAF line was suspended because of a discrepancy between the costs of services offered and the revenues obtained- due to a lack of significant volume of operations.

From March 2 to December 9, 2018 (the first year of operation of the port of Kribi) ASAF services made 32 stopovers there for a total of 70,000 TEUs transhipped. This was half of the containerized traffic received at the port and about 30% of its turnover on onshore activities (excluding feeders and other relay vessels).

Sylvain Andzongo