Shipping Connectivity in Africa

According to the International Maritime Organization (see list of IMO conventions), 90% of the world's trade is transported by sea and shipping is truly the lynchpin of the global economy. Without shipping, intercontinental trade, the bulk transport of raw materials and the import/export of affordable food and manufactured goods would simply not be possible.  Efficiency of shipping is also closely interlinked with ports and land transport services.  The world's major ports are located close to the main international shipping routes that transverse the east-west global axis and Africa's intra-regional liner shipping connections are largely determined by the shipping liner routes, connecting African countries with Europe, Asia and to a lesser extent the Americas. 

The main or busiest shipping route in Africa transits the Red Sea into the Suez Canal through the Mediterranean and out through the Strait of Gibraltar. Vessels along this route deliver goods mainly to and from Europe and Asia although in recent year intra-regional African trade in this region has been increasing. Generally however the connections within the continent are few and for example North Africa is not connected to East or Southern Africa and there are no shipping lines for instance between Kenya and Cote d' Ivoire.

By the same token, according to a Study by USITC titled Sub-Saharan Africa: Effects ofInfrastructure Conditions on ExportCompetitiveness, Third Annual Report about 12 shipping companies provide services between Mombasa and Dar-es-Salaam but neither has services to the Northern seabed of Africa.  Thus maritime trade between African countries on opposite coasts of the continent depends on transshipment services via Europe or South Africa.

Normally a transshipment operation to a third country means higher costs compared to direct port to services between two trading economies hence increasing the cost of intra-regional trade. Nonetheless, transshipment centers such as Djibouti, Senegal, Morocco promote south-south trade especially on routes where trade volumes are currently not large enough to justify direct port to port shipping service.