Traffic at Lomé’s Port rose by 59.5% year-on-year, at Q3 2017
Monday, 12 February 2018 14:22 
(Togo First) - Traffic at the Autonomous Port of Lomé (PAL) rose by 59.5% year-on-year, at Q3 2017. This was revealed in a sectoral report for this quarter released last Thursday by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
From July to September 2017, port traffic reached about 6 million tons (5,751,600 tons),which is a 9.9% increment compared to the previous quarter.
Over the first nine months of last year, total traffic at the port was 14,689,000 tons as against 10,542,100 tons the year before over the same period (+39.3%).
In detail, the volume of cargo unloaded at the port throughout the first three quarters of 2017 rose by 12.9% compared to the same period in 2016.
This reflects an increase in imports of oil products, food products, construction materials, and other goods transiting to other countries, such as Nigeria (+181%), Ghana (+44%), Mali (+37%) and Niger (+31%). However, Burkina Faso, with 10.714 million tons of discharged goods at PAL, was the country that captured most of the port’s traffic from January to September 2017.
In regards to loading over the first nine months of 2017, volumes of exported goods stood at 901,900 tons as against 752,800 tons in 2016’s first nine months. Thus, a 19.8% increment, a rise spurred by a 22% increase of goods coming from Burkina Faso. Over the same period, agricultural product exports stood at 246,400 tons representing a 4.8% rise.
It is however important to note that during the first nine months of 2017, 1,022 ships docked at PAL.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
