The Impact of Demand on Cargo Dwell Time in Ports in SSA

Beuran, Monica ; Mahihenni, Mohamed Hadi ; Raballand, Gael ; Refas, Salim

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACTUAL DEMAND;    ADVERSE EFFECTS;    ADVERSE IMPACT;    ADVERTISING;    ARBITRAGE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6014
RP-ID  :  WPS6014

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Long cargo dwell times in ports are acritical issue in Sub-Saharan African countries since theyresult in slow import processes and are bound todramatically reduce trade. The main objective of this studyis to analyze long dwell times' causes in ports inSub-Saharan Africa from a shipper's perspective. Thefindings point to the crucial importance of private sectorpractices and incentives. The authors argue in the case ofSub-Saharan African countries that private operators, ratherthan being advocates of reforms in this area, might beresponsible for the failures of many of these initiatives.It seems that in Sub-Saharan Africa importers' andfreight forwarders' professionalism, cash constraintsand operators' strategies are some of the factors thathave a major impact on cargo dwell time. Low competency,cash constraints and low storage tariffs explain why mostimporters have little incentive to reduce cargo dwell timesince in most cases, this would increase their input costs.However, monopolists/cartels may have a stronger incentiveto reduce cargo dwell time but only in order to maximizetheir profit (and would not adjust prices downward).