Southern Africa faces sea port security challenges

Seaports in the Southern Africa are facing significant growth amid increasing international trade, but at the same time they are struggling with major security problems stemming from a range of criminal activities.

 

Overboard Container losses

A new study by the World Shipping Council (WSC) indicates that the number of cargo containers lost at sea is significantly lower than widely reported figures might suggest. Even with proper cargo-loading and secure stowage of containers aboard ship, factors such as severe weather and rough seas, or more catastrophic and rare events like ship-grounding or collision can result in containers being lost overboard while at sea. All clients are advised to carry sufficient levels of marine insurance.

 

India plans massive port expansion

The Indian government is planning to invest US$60 billion in its ports by 2020, according to report from Bloomberg, as part of a massive program to overhaul the country’s transport and power infrastructure.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hopes to catch up on China, by boosting annual GDP growth to beyond the 10% mark. The country has fallen far behind China, whose economy is now three times that of India. However, inadequate investment infrastructure has created bottlenecks that have constrained India's growth and stoked inflation. These problems are highly visible in the country’s hugely congested ports.

According to figures the Ministry of Shipping, port projects worth US$2.3 billion are currently in progress. The government is partly depending on companies such as DP World and AP Moller-Maersk for investments aimed at upgrading ports capability from 963 million tonnes in 2010 to 3.1 billion tonnes by 2020. Crucial to the plan is the establishment of deeper berths for bigger container ships as a means to boost exports.

 

Libyan ports sanctions lifted

The EU lifted sanctions on Friday 2nd September, against six Libyan ports – Tripoli, Al Khoma, Brega, Ras Lanuf, Zawia and Zuwara – reports the Journal of Commerce.

According to the UN, Libya is critically short of basic supplies, including water, food and medicine. The rebel authorities have now reopened the port in the capital Tripoli.

 

More bad news for Piracy

At the beginning of August, three of the world’s largest flag states signed an agreement condemning acts of violence against seafarers by pirates. The “Washington Declaration” saw the flag states agree to pool information on the mistreatment of seafarers at the hands of pirates and recognized that the increasing use of violence against captured seafarers is under-reported by the media.

So far in 2011, there have been 176 attacks on vessels by Somali pirates, which resulted in 22 successful hijackings with 378 crew taken hostage. Taking into account vessels hijacked in 2010 which remain unreleased, there are presently 19 vessels still held off Somalia with a total of 377 crew still held to ransom. Total attacks worldwide stand at 304. Figures for 2011 suggest that the number of worldwide piracy incidents is on course to match or surpass those for 2010, with attacks off Somalia accounting for a greater percentage of worldwide attacks than in previous years.

Some 43 percent of the participants said it was difficult to find crew members willing to sail through dangerous waters and half of the owners had already seen a higher cost burden resulting from piracy, either for the security personnel, vessel rerouting or higher insurance premiums.


 

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