The new container terminal at Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire has been a long time coming. Côte d’Ivoire Terminal (CIT) was first unveiled in 2013, and APM Terminals joined Bolloré as a JV partner in CIT in 2018. At that stage China Harbour Engineering Company was at work on deepening and widening the channel, and the terminal was expected to be open in mid 2020.

In a statement APM Terminals said: “Phase one of the project was handled by the Port Autonome d’Abidjan (PAA) and consisted of the deepening and widening of the Vridi Canal access channel. More than 45 hectares of land was also reclaimed for the creation of the new Côte d’Ivoire Terminal (CIT) and an adjacent Roll-on Roll-off facility. An $80 million expansion at the existing Abidjan Terminal was already completed in 2015, increasing its annual container capacity from 800,000 TEU to 1.5m TEU”.

The ro-ro terminal will be operated by France-based Terminal Roulier d’Abidjan (TERRA), which is a public-private partnership between the PAA, Bolloré Ports group, CMA CGM, Grimaldi Group, Movis, an automotive logistics company, and several private Ivorian investors.

The CIT consortium will invest Euro 400M in the new box terminal, which will bring an additional 1.2M TEU capacity to the port in the first phase. With a water depth when dredging is completed of -18m, the new terminal will be able to handle significantly larger ships than the existing Abidjan Terminal, which can currently accommodate vessels up to -11.5m draft.

CIT will have 1,100m of quay, an RTG yard with reefer plugs for up to 1,100 reefer containers, and a rail yard with two tracks of 300m each. “The terminal also signed a contract this month for the supply of 6 post-panamax gantry cranes, 13 e-RTG’s and 36 Tugmasters. Additional equipment is already included in future plans, once the terminal approaches an agreed volume threshold,” APM Terminals said.

APM Terminals is expecting the terminal to grow strongly. “In recent years, Côte d’Ivoire has achieved a solid GDP growth rate, averaging 6-7% per annum,” it said. “This has resulted in significant growth in import and export volumes. With the additional capacity provided by CIT, the terminal and the Port of Abidjan will position itself as a preferred gateway for surrounding landlocked countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which currently use less optimal routes due to capacity restrictions at gateway terminals”.

Koen De Backker, Managing Director of CIT, said the facility should also be able to capture transhipment business.“A more efficient and competitive port, with latest generation container handling equipment and deep draft, will help reduce the cost of handling cargo, and fuel trade growth and transhipment volumes,” he said. Significant transhipment volumes destined for Guinea (Conakry), Sierra Leone (Freetown) and Liberia (Monrovia) are expected.