TITLE:
An Evaluation of West and Central African Ports to Serve as a Hub on the Gulf of Guinea Container Ports Range
AUTHORS:
Balla Nguele Veronique, Youfang Huang
KEYWORDS:
Port Index, Hub Port, Competition, Transhipment, WCA, Network Optimization
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Applied Sciences,
Vol.9 No.4,
April
29,
2019
ABSTRACT: The level of competitions among ports keep increasing as port worldwide
keep upgrading and expanding their port infrastructures so as to capture the
greater share of the market. Every continent phases these competitions. This
phenomenon is more prominent in developed countries where ports do not only
compete among regional ports but also compete with other ports within the same
country such as in America, some European countries and part of Asia like in
China. However, the situation is a bit different when it comes to African
ports. Most African ports have poor infrastructures and limited technological
investments and so port competitions in the African continent cannot be
compared with that of the western ports. Despite these setbacks, there is a
significant amount of competition among these African ports, especially on a
regional basis. The aim of this paper is to determine which port can serve as a
hub port between the West and Central African ports along the Gulf of Guinea.
The method that will be used to evaluate these ports will be a port indexing
method. This method considers different indices for port evaluation to
determine the most suitable port. The port of Tema appeared as the most
suitable port to serve as a hub port.