Southern Africa has had the fastest growth in general cargo traffic and West Africa in container traffic, albeit from a low base. Dry bulk traffic (coal, grain, and some chemicals) and liquid bulk traffic (mostly oil) have also been growing rapidly. But by international standards, traffic in all categories is unbalanced, increasing the costs of African trade. Export volumes greatly exceed import volumes for dry and liquid bulks, while imports dominate exports for general cargo and container trades (see figure).
The lack of integrated rail and road links means that Sub-Saharan Africa’s ports are poorly equipped to handle containers. As a result, containerization often is only partially implemented, resulting in far less efficiency than full containerization would bring. Containers are packed and unpacked in the vicinity of the ports, and the benefits of fully integrated multimodal transport corridors associated with container adoption are not secured. As a result, there is still comparatively little containerized traffic into the landlocked hinterland, and most imports are transported in the form of general cargo.
Imbalances in African container trade, 2005