{"id":1621,"date":"2021-07-22T12:49:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T11:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portstrategy.nfdtesting.uk\/greenport\/2021\/07\/22\/banana-case-study\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:51:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T12:51:53","slug":"banana-case-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/news\/africa\/banana-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"BANANA CASE STUDY"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"gallery storyGallery inlineGallery\" data-gallery-caption=\"hide\"><button class=\"show-fullscreen\" data-url=\"\/attachment?storycode=1459537&amp;attype=G&amp;atcode=200874&amp;gallery=15098\">Full screen in popup<\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"sleeve\">\n<div class=\"swiper-container galleryItems\">\n<ul class=\"controls\">\n<li class=\"previous disabled\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#\"><span>Previous<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"next\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#\"><span>Next<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"swiper-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"swiper-slide\" data-url=\"\/attachment?storycode=1459537&amp;attype=G&amp;atcode=200874&amp;gallery=15098\">\n<div class=\"sleeve\">\n<div class=\"display\">\n<div class=\"imageWrapper\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"lazyloaded  wp-image-1622\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/07\/00_200874_Table-2-DRC.webp\" width=\"324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/07\/00_200874_Table-2-DRC.webp 454w, https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/07\/00_200874_Table-2-DRC-300x214.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 454px) 100vw, 454px\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption hide\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"description\">Table 2: Inland Transport Corridors \u2013 Ports to Main Market of Kinshasa<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"swiper-slide\" data-url=\"\/attachment?storycode=1459537&amp;attype=G&amp;atcode=200873&amp;gallery=15098\">\n<div class=\"sleeve\">\n<div class=\"display\">\n<div class=\"imageWrapper\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"lazyloaded  wp-image-1623\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/07\/01_200873_Table-1-DRC.webp\" width=\"449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/07\/01_200873_Table-1-DRC.webp 629w, https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/07\/01_200873_Table-1-DRC-300x214.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption hide\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"description\">Table 1: Built-up Delivery Costs (US$) for a 40ft container, China to Kinshasa via the existing port of Matadi and proposed port of  Banana<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"options\">\n<p class=\"counter\"><span class=\"current-index\">1<\/span>\/2<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"toggle-caption hide\" tabindex=\"0\">show caption<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>One of the often challenging questions considered in assessing the viability of new port projects is will the scale economies off ered via larger vessels calling at a deepwater port off set higher inland charges? In practical terms, this often means will the construction of a new port closer to the sea, compared to an estuary or river port, but further away from the main market served be able to deliver real and meaningful economies of direct benefit to cargo owners?<\/p>\n<p>There are also satellite issues that impact this question \u2013 for example, is the new port development site a greenfield site where the cost of development will be higher or is the proposed location one subject to coastal erosion and the effect of ocean dynamics (height of swells, speed of breaking waves, tides storms and so on). With these sort of factors in play, they inevitably bump up total development cost.<\/p>\n<p>These fundamental questions invariably become much more important in a developing country situation where due to limited financial resources there is less support available from the public sector to resolve some of the wider port development issues right through from establishing efficient road and rail infrastructure to essential sea defences. For a private developer, the bottom line is that it will, almost always, entail more cost.<\/p>\n<p><strong>THE CASE OF BANANA<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The case of the new port project proposed for the Democratic Republic of the Congo at Banana, located close to the mouth of the Congo River, is an interesting one to consider in the light of the above factors. Terminal operator DP World announced in early May this year that it is set to commence work on the deep-sea port development here secured under a revised concession agreement with the current \u2018Sacred Union of the Nation\u2019 government led by President Felix Tshisekedi.<\/p>\n<p>The original concession was established in 2018 in conjunction with the previous government led by ex-President Joseph Kabila. The key question is, will the freight rates offered by the larger vessel calls at Banana compensate for the lower inland transport charges available from the river port of Matadi, which is located much closer to the main market of the capital city of Kinshasa?<\/p>\n<p>Table 1, showing built-up delivery costs for a 40ft container from Shanghai via Matadi and Banana provides a clear answer \u2013 they will not. While the ocean freight to Banana is cheaper to the tune of US$825.00 the inland transport cost from Banana is US$2400.00 more expensive wiping out the ocean freight advantage.<\/p>\n<p>Table 2 provides a further comparative perspective of the inland distances involved and associated costs and again highlights Matadi as the most cost-effective gateway \u2013 where it should also be noted there is recently established modern container handling facility in operation.<\/p>\n<p>Pointe Noire is the location of a deep-water container terminal in The Congo which could potentially serve Kinshasa. Road and rail services run from Pointe Noire to Brazzaville, capital of The Congo, which is located on the northern banks of the Congo River directly opposite Kinshasa.<\/p>\n<p>While, however, there has been much talk of building a bridge across the river the idea still remains firmly on the drawing board. This route would also of course be subject to border crossing formalities and hitherto undefined costs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WIDER ISSUES<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On the topic of overall development cost, Banana also raises some interesting questions \u2013 the DPW project has a first phase development cost of US$350 million rising to US$1 billion over a proposed four phases.<\/p>\n<p>Other informed sources, however, cite an overall development cost for Banana as high as US$2 billion. There will be extensive interfacing road development costs \u2013 the road from Banana to Boma en route to Matadi is presently just a gravel road and requires extensive bridge construction.<\/p>\n<p>A rail link is only possible with new track construction to connect with the existing rail system at Matadi and the DRC coastal zone is problematic suffering heavy coastal erosion with a sea level that can rise by as much as two metres. From a competitive standpoint, dredging of the Congo River to provide access for WAF-Max vessels can be achieved at an estimated cost of US$50 million and for transshipment traffic the nearby Bollore Pointe Noire facility already has a strong foothold in this sector.<\/p>\n<p>Last but not least, there is the issue of the size of the container market \u2013 the DRC is one of the poorest countries in Africa and as such in the near to medium term the prospects for container growth complementing the installed capacity for a deep-water terminal appear limited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do the scale economies of shipping freight costs off set high inland charges? A J Keyes examines the interesting case of the Banana port project in the DRC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-1621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1624,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621\/revisions\/1624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1621"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=1621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}