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Port Of Abidjan News

30 May 2017

MSC Inks 35-year Deal to Run Ivory Coast Terminal

Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has signed a 35-year concession agreement with Ivory Coast's second port of San Pedro to operate its container terminal as part of a deal to upgrade the facility, the Swiss shipping company said on Tuesday. Ivory Coast is the world's leading producer of cocoa, and over half of its total output is exported via the port of San Pedro, which is located near the main western growing regions. The country's main port is Abidjan, which is one of the region's busiest. Investments for upgrades to the port will total nearly 300 billion CFA francs ($510 million), including around 130 billion CFA francs from MSC, the company said in a statement.

03 Sep 2016

Port of Antwerp Invests for First Time in West Africa

The port of Antwerp and the port of San Pedro in Côte d’Ivoire are to collaborate over the next few years to manage further expansion of this West African entrepot. San Pedro, the leading cacao port in the world, aims to develop at regional level so as to become a logistics hotspot for handling commodities such as fertilisers, cashew nuts and cacao, among other things. Part of the capital cost will be financed by Port of Antwerp International (PAI), the consultancy and investment subsidiary of Antwerp Port Authority. While PAI has already been active in West Africa for many years now, this will be the first time it has made a financial investment in the region. Already in 2011 the ports of San Pedro and Antwerp signed an agreement for collaboration between them.

02 Mar 2016

Ivory Coast Coffee Bean Export Dips 10% in 2015

Ivory Coast 2015 coffee beans exports stood at 63,106 tonnes, down about 10 percent from 70,161 tonnes the previous year, port data showed on Wednesday.   About 56,079 metric tons of coffee beans were shipped in 2015 from the port of Abidjan, compared with 59,509 tonnes the previous year, while exports were at 7,027 metric tons from the port of San Pedro compared with 10,652 metric tons the previous year. (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and David Evans)

23 Feb 2016

Ecoslops Issues €5.5 Mln Bonds for Growth

Ecoslops, the first company to develop a technology to sustainably produce marine fuels from refined marine oil residues (‘slops’), has announced the successful issuance of ORNANE convertible bonds for the nominal value of €5.5 million. Following the commercial validation of its first micro-refining plant in the Port of Sinès, Portugal, the additional capital will be used to accelerate the development of new projects, while continuing to ramp up the initial operation to full capacity by the end of 2016. Vincent Favier, CEO, Ecoslops, said,  “Our micro-refinery in the Port of Sinès has shown its capability to transform 98% of hydrocarbon residue into marketable and certified products, exceeding expectations.

03 Sep 2014

Pirates Attack Product Tanker off Ivory Coast

Armed pirates robbed a petroleum products tanker near Ivory Coast's port of Abidjan, a maritime agency and a private security advisor said on Wednesday, in an indication of the increasing mobility of Nigeria-based gangs. The raid on the tanker came just a day after two failed pirate attacks that occurred just hours apart in waters off Nigeria's southeastern coast, according to the same sources. Pirate attacks in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea, a significant source of oil, cocoa and metals for world markets, have almost doubled from last year, jacking up insurance costs for shipping companies. The vast majority of the region's maritime robberies and hijackings are believed to be carried out by criminal gangs based in Nigeria…

11 Jul 2014

Second Ivory Coast Container Port: Consortium Gets Cash

Banque Atlantique, SocGen and Afreximbank have raised 200 million euros (US$272.81 million) to start a second container terminal at Abidjan port in Ivory Coast [West Africa], a banking spokesman said on Thursday. The new terminal contract, awarded to a group led by France's Bollore last year, should boost capacity at one of Africa's busiest ports - a gateway for landlocked nations to the north and a transit point for beans from the world's top cocoa grower. Port traffic is booming and total tonnage surpassed 21 million tonnes in 2013. Banque Atlantique has raised 100 million euros and Societe Generale and Afreximbank gave 50 million euros each, Souleymane Diarrassouba, director general of Banque Atlantique, told Reuters. His bank is a subsidiary of Banque Populaire du Maroc.

10 Jul 2014

Funds Secured for 2nd Abidjan Container Port

Banque Atlantique, SocGen and Afreximbank have raised 200 million euros ($272.81 million) to start a second container terminal at Abidjan port in Ivory Coast, a banking spokesman said on Thursday. The new terminal contract, awarded to a group led by France's Bollore last year, should boost capacity at one of Africa's busiest ports - a gateway for landlocked nations to the north and a transit point for beans from the world's top cocoa grower. Port traffic is booming and total tonnage surpassed 21 million metric tons in 2013. Banque Atlantique has raised 100 million euros and Societe Generale and Afreximbank gave 50 million euros each, Souleymane Diarrassouba, director general of Banque Atlantique, told Reuters. His bank is a subsidiary of Banque Populaire du Maroc.

27 May 2014

Monster Barge in Port Abidjan Serviced by GAC-OMA

The massive installation barge 'Hyundai 60' weighs in at 34,125t, is 187m long, equipped with a 1,800t crane, and was earlier engaged in pipe-laying & offshore installation works off the coast of Escravos. GAC Nigeria, with its local partner OMA Ivory Coast. says it provided a range of ship agency, husbandry & logistics services for her and her attendant fleet of support vessels in the Port of Abidjan. The barge was demobilised and moved to Abidjan for maintenance work while she's being held in stand-by until she is needed for the next phase starting in October 2014. Upon arrival, GAC worked with TRACE-certified local partner OMA Ivory Coast to provide the range of agency, supplies, crew and logistics support the 'Hyundai 60' needed for her stay in port.

25 Apr 2014

Ivory Coast Lifts Ecom Cocoa, Coffee Export Ban

Courtesy Ecom

Top cocoa grower Ivory Coast has reinstated the export licence of Swiss agricultural trader Ecom Agroindustrial Corp Ltd's local unit, rescinding a ban imposed in a dispute over farmer bonuses, a document from the marketing board showed. The Coffee and Cocoa Council, CCC, imposed the suspension, which also barred Ecom subsidiary ZAMACOM from participating in cocoa auctions, on Feb. Several farmer cooperatives had complained to the CCC that ZAMACOM owed them premium payments for certified cocoa produced during the 2012/13 season. Ecom denied it had failed to make the payments.

17 Apr 2014

UN Seeks Sanctions Waiver to Ship Arms to Mali

The United Nations is seeking an exemption from a U.N. Security Council arms embargo on Ivory Coast so it can ship weapons and military equipment across the East African nation to its peacekeeping mission in landlocked Mali, a spokesman said on Thursday. The statement came after U.N. sanctions monitors called for the world body to stop allowing arms to be shipped to the U.N. mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, through Ivory Coast after they said a load of military hardware sent by China violated U.N. restrictions. "We are engaged with the secretariat of the sanctions committee to seek a standing waiver for the transfer through Ivory Coast of arms and equipment under embargo that's intended solely for use by the U.N. mission," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

01 Apr 2014

Seminar Stresses Port Security to Reduce Stowaways

Port facilities need to further strengthen their capacities for surveillance and access control, in order to reduce the incidence of stowaways, participants at a regional seminar on stowaways in West and Central Africa agreed. The IMO Regional Seminar on Stowaways in West and Central Africa: Analysis of the current situation and measures to reduce their number was held in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, from March 25-27, 2014, hosted by the Ministry of Transport of Côte d’Ivoire in the premises of the Port of Abidjan. More than 50 participants, 31 of which were funded by IMO’s Technical Cooperation program attended the seminar, including security and immigration officials from the 12 most frequent ports of embarkation of stowaways (major ports of Benin…

09 Oct 2013

GAC-OMA Extends Ivory Coast Shipping & Logistics Service

GAC is further strengthening its presence in West Africa with the extension of the GAC-OMA network agreement to include the Ivory Coast. The extension of the network comes after the Ivory Coast's return to stability in late 2011 and its rapid re-establishment as one of the world’s leading cocoa producers. Exports of other products such as palm oil, coffee, some petroleum products, bananas, pineapples, cotton and fish are contributing to forecast year-on-year GDP growth of about 8%. GAC-OMA Ivory Coast supports that growth with a complete range of shipping and logistics services from its main office in the country’s main port city, Abidjan, strategically located between the port and airport. In West Africa, the GAC Group also has an established presence in Nigeria, Angola and Congo.

25 Mar 2013

Second Ivory Coast Container Terminal

Contract awarded for a second container terminal that will double the African state's capacity. The Ivory Coast Government has awarded a contract for the construction of a second container terminal at the port of Abidjan to a consortium of French companies Bollore, Bouygues and Danish group AP Moller-Maersk A/S. The project envisages the design, financing, construction, development, equipment and operation of the terminal, which will have a capacity to service 1.5 million twenty-foot equivalent containers (TEUs) annually. Source: GAC

21 Jan 2013

Pirates Seize Tankship Off Ivory Coast

Armed men hijack a tankship carrying 5,000 tons of oil from an Ivory Coast port and force it to sail to offshore Ghana. The precise whereabouts of the tanker are presently unknown to government authorities and maritime officials, reports the Maritime Security Review. The Panamanian-flagged vessel Itri was first seized as the tanker was preparing to deposit oil at the port of Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial capital. The Ivory Coast Government stated that the vessel was presently off the coast of neighbouring Ghana and that the relevant aurthorities had been mobilised. Source: Maritime Security Review

20 Nov 2000

Abidjan Port Head Axed

Ivory Coast's new government has replaced the head of the country's main port of Abidjan, who was appointed by the former military administration, state media reported. Marcel Gossio reportedly took over on Monday as managing director of the port of Abidjan, replacing Ahmed Kone Mamadou. "Today's change does not indicate that the management team failed," Kone Mamadou was quoted as saying in government newspaper Fraternite Matin. Kone Mamadou had earlier this month said that traffic through the port was down 10 percent over the first 10 months of the year compared with the same period in 1999, due to political unrest and economic slowdown. Kone Mamadou was appointed under army ruler General Robert Guei, who was ousted by popular street protests after he tried to rig a presidential election.