Hapag-Lloyd celebrated the official opening of its new office in Tema, the most important port city in Ghana. Beginning immediately, Hapag-Lloyd will manage all its activities in West Africa from this location.
“I’m very pleased that our enhanced presence in West Africa is showing initial signs of success,” said Anthony Firmin, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Hapag-Lloyd. “Our West Africa Express (WAX) service from and to West Africa has been operating with extraordinary success for several years and is very well received by customers. With our new East Africa Service (EAS), connecting Saudi Arabia with Kenya and Tanzania, we have entered another new trade. As a result, we are tying Africa even more closely to our global network while benefiting at the same time from positive economic developments in large parts of Africa.”
The GDP of West Africa has grown significantly in the last two years, rising by an average of 6 percent. Ghana numbers among the fastest-growing economies in the region. This growth is primarily driven by the trade in gold, but also in oil and gas products. Among Ghana’s most important export goods are cocoa, timber products and cashew nuts.
Hapag-Lloyd has massively expanded its presence in Africa over the last two years and established a fast connection from West Africa to Europe via what are now two services: the West Africa Express (WAX, Hamburg – Casablanca – Tangier – Dakar – Tema – Abidjan – Tangier – Antwerp – Hamburg) and the Mediterranean West Africa Express (MWX, Tangier – Algeciras – Cotonou – Lagos (Apapa & Pipan) – Tema – Tangier).
Both services will call at the port city of Tema, which is not far from Ghana’s capital, Accra. Plans call for the port’s annual handling capacity to be tripled by mid-2019, from 1 million to 3 million TEU. Hapag-Lloyd is expecting additional growth opportunities from this capacity expansion.
With a fleet of 219 modern container ships and a total transport capacity of 1.6 million TEU, Hapag-Lloyd is one of the world's leading liner shipping companies. The Company has around 12,500 employees and over 380 offices in 125 countries. Hapag-Lloyd has a container capacity of 2.3 million TEU – including one of the largest and most modern fleets of reefer containers.