German container ship giant Hapag-Lloyd announced the official opening of its new office in Tema, the most important port city in Ghana. The company will manage most of its West African operations from this location. As such, the port of Tema could become the transhipment hub for West Africa.
The GDP of West Africa has grown significantly in the last two years, rising by an average of 6%, according to the company’s COO, Anthony J. Firmin, and Ghana is among the fastest-growing economies in the region, driven by gold and oil and gas products.
Over the last months, Hapag-Lloyd has largely expanded its presence in Africa and established a fast connection from West Africa to Europe via two services:
- the West Africa Express (WAX: Hamburg – Casablanca – Tangier – Dakar – Tema – Abidjan – Tangier – Antwerp – Hamburg)
- the Mediterranean West Africa Express (MWX: Tangier – Algeciras – Cotonou – Lagos (Apapa & Pipan) – Tema – Tangi
Both services will call at Tema, near Ghana’s capital, Accra. Plans call for the port’s annual handling capacity to be tripled from 1 to 3 million TEU, by mid-2019.
