International Maritime
Inland under pressure
Philippe Labonne, CEO of Africa Global Logistics( AGL), a subsidiary of Mediterranean Shipping Co.( MSC), said the issue was less about the number of ports capable of accommodating the largest ships and more about the hinterland’ s capacity to absorb the resulting cargo volumes.
He pointed out that when a next-generation vessel calls at an African port, it can discharge several thousand containers within a few hours.
“ This concentration of flows puts significant pressure not only on terminal infrastructure but above all on downstream facilities: roads, warehouses, customs systems and inland logistics networks,” Labonne told the Journal of Commerce.
“ The terminals we operate are often located in city centers, limiting opportunities for physical expansion, as is the case in Abidjan, Conakry and Freetown,” he said.
Labonne did not believe this constituted a ceiling on volume growth and could be addressed by“ anticipation and investment.” He said port capacity expansion must be accompanied by comparable investments in logistics corridors, rail infrastructure, inland platforms and multimodal solutions.
“ Part of the pressure observed today is due to the rapid deployment of much larger vessels and the resulting step change in scale, while inland infrastructure development naturally follows longer and more gradual investment cycles involving both private operators and public authorities,” Labonne said.
The increasing size of ships deployed on the Asia – Africa trades and the rising call sizes— the number of containers loaded and unloaded during a port call— was captured in S & P Global Port Performance data.
The latest available data shows the average call size of ships at the Ghanian hub of Tema in May was up 17 % compared with January at close to 2,000 TEUs. In the Ivory Coast port of Abidjan, average call sizes were up 30 % at 1,829 TEUs, and at Lomé in Togo, call sizes were stable at just over 1,000 TEUs. S & P Global is the parent company of the Journal of Commerce.
While Hapag-Lloyd significantly expanded its regional presence with the takeover of Africa specialist carriers NileDutch in 2021 and Deutsche Africa Line in 2022, rival carriers are also aggressively targeting one of the world’ s most dynamic developing markets.
“ Terminal capacity, and especially inland capacity, is going to be the biggest bottleneck for continuous growth.”
MSC last year became the first carrier to deploy 24,000- TEU ships on the Africa trade to serve the rapid growth in demand with scheduled services calling at Lomé, Abidjan, Tema, and Kribi in Cameroon.
CMA CGM has a major presence in the African market, with six Asia – West Africa loops and five to the East Coast, and is invested in eight container terminals across the continent. In February, the carrier relocated its Africa regional base from the Marseille head office to Abidjan.
Maersk has also been building its Africa portfolio. In the second quarter, the carrier increased direct loops between Asia and West Africa from three to four services seeking to improve reliability and handle surging regional demand.
The average size of container ships calling at African ports has increased since the start of 2026. Issouf SANOGO / AFP via Getty Images www. joc. com September 7, 2026 | Journal of Commerce 35