Detour! Congestion! Price hikes! Pressure mounts on African ports

Recently, affected by the continuous tension and escalation of the Red Sea situation, many international shipping companies have chosen to avoid the traditional Red Sea route and turn to bypass Africa, which has put many African ports under increasing pressure.

Due to the significant increase in vessel voyages as a result of the detour to Africa, some traders and industry sources say there has been an increase in demand for bunker fuel in ports such as Port Louis in Mauritius, Gibraltar, the Canary Islands and South African ports, with sales in Cape Town and Durban rising sharply.

The price of low-sulfur bunker fuel delivered in Cape Town has risen 15 percent to nearly $800 per ton since the events of the Red Sea crisis began in mid-November, according to bunker supplier Integr8 Fuels. Some ships on the Asia-Europe route have even had to add more fuel in Singapore in advance as a precaution.

At the same time, some ports in Africa are also experiencing congestion as the infrastructure of many ports is struggling to meet the sudden increase in shipping demand.

At the port of Colombo, a key port linking Africa, the Middle East and East Asia. According to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), the number of 20-foot containers (TEUs) handled by the port reached 6.94 million in 2023, a 2% increase from the previous year.

The port of Colombo has seen a sharp increase in container throughput, especially after the emergence of tensions in the Red Sea, and in December, the number of containers handled at the port was up 15 percent from a year ago.

An official of the Authority said, "More and more shipping companies are using the Colombo port as a transshipment port, sometimes even transferring entire cargoes to other vessels."

The Colombo port usually handles about 5,000 to 5,500 containers a day, but since the end of last year, the daily capacity has increased by about 1,000.

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