The Impact Of Containerisation On Takoradi Port

ABSTRACT

 Containerisation has since the middle of the 20th century made container ports and terminals an essential component of the modern economy and its impact has touched all the three major maritime communities of vessels, ports and shore side activities. This phenomenon did not only change shipping but has caused the docks of some traditional maritime centres to decline into obsolescence. In order to survive in the port competition, Port Authorities are under colossal pressure to increase efficiency in their operations as well as fund port expansion projects. The Port of Takoradi is export oriented and the nation strongly advocates for a change to export processed raw material (possibly in containers) yet lays much emphasis on the oil business in the current development project. The economic activities involving agricultural alone employs more than half of the workforce population but the proceeds from the oil business to the state does not yield up to 80% benefits and yet may not last more than three decades. Probably, there is a misplacement of priority in developing the port. This study was therefore set to find out the operational and developmental impact of containerisation on Takoradi Port whilst examining and analysing the impact of the challenges of containerisation and the trend in container throughput of the port. Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were adopted with the use of questionnaires and personal interviews to help increase data validity and reliability. The study revealed amongst others that under the merger of the two national ports under the common management of GPHA, Tema Port was developed to specialise more in handling the influx of containers traffic to relieve the increasing pressure on Takoradi Port. Among others, it was v concluded that the extensive impact of the advent of containerisation on the development can be inferred from the consequences of the container trade on the development of Tema Port. In the end, it was recommended that the container trade should be given equal or better priority as the oil and gas trade in the development of the Takoradi Port whilst GPHA allows independence to the ports to fairly compete for the traffic in containers.