Intermodal cooperation on the west coast
A collaboration agreement between the French shipping line and logistics enterprise CMA CGM and the Angolan logistics service provider Multiparques is in the making in the West African state of Angola.
CMA CGM, the third-largest container shipping line worldwide, and Multiparques, a major player in the Angolan logistics market, are sailing towards a joint intermodal future. The deal foresees the two new partners collaborating on terminal activities in Lobito, the second-largest Angolan gateway after Luanda. They also envisage the development of logistics platforms in the hinterland.
Strategic position for West Africa
A corresponding memorandum of understanding was signed in Paris recently by CMA CGM’s senior vice-president for logistics and reefer cargo, Alexis Michel, and Leonel Pinto, the president of Multiparques. The contract was signed in the presence of the French and Angolan foreign ministers, Laurent Fabius and George Rebelo Pinto Chicoti. Michel told the media that the port of Lobito in southern Angola is located in a strategically very advantageous position for the distribution of goods destined for West African countries, thanks largely to its superior geographical position as well as its existing railway connections.
These advantages are not only based on links to nearby Benguela and Huambo, the two largest Angolan cities after Luanda, Michel said, but also on a newly-renovated railway corridor between Lobito on the Atlantic Ocean and the Copperbelt region straddling the country’s borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia. These two factors provide the port of Lobito with a great intermodal operations future, Alexis added. The new terminal is expected to commence operations in the course of 2015.
Active in 43 African countries
With its subsidiary Delmas the CMA CGM Group operates 72 offices in 43 African countries. They offer their customers maritime services to every part of the world, through 26 direct services calling in Africa. 122 CMA CGM employees work in its five Angolan offices, connecting the transport and logistics chain to CMA CGM’s maritime services.
CMA CGM has decided to capitalise on its intermodal expertise in order to strengthen its overall African network, and particularly its Angolan options. Seven of its services currently regularly call in the country. To this end the corporation will bank on its overland infrastructure, ports, terminals and multimodal investments.
Countering congestion in West African ports
The terminal operator APMT has placed an order for four new advanced rubber-tyre gantry cranes (RTGs) for its subsidiary APM Terminals Apapa (Nigeria). The units are due to be delivered in a year by the Finnish manufacturer Konecranes. The RTGs offer a lifting capacity of 41 t and also have the ability to stack containers five high. These four newly-acquired RTGs will bring the Apapa facility’s total fleet to 14 RTGs. The deployment of these additional cranes is expected to decrease the negative impact of growing throughput volumes on Africa’s west coast, and provide relief to the chronic congestion affecting ports (see also pages 34 and 37 of this issue).