Africa's lack of substantial rivers of sufficient width and depth - aside from the Congo and the Nile - have deprived the continent in benefiting from the efficiencies of containerisation that have reduced the cost of shipping goods elsewhere in the world.

As late as the 1970s half of the retail price of most import consumables went to shipping getting them into the hands of consumers. General cargo ships were much smaller than they are today, and could ship less as a result, which restricted sales of imports to the more affluent,

At a time when a ship's capacity was no larger than a 500-TEU vessel would be today, manned by a crew of 40 men, things were much different in 1970 than they are today.  Even by the year 2000, there were ships of nearly 10,000 TEU manned by much smaller crews of 20. Thus, there was more space aboard to carry more products more cheaply that could be sold at a lower price, and therefore to even more people. Thus, if more people could buy them, it made sense to ship even cheaper products that poorer people could buy,

Couple this with modern cargo handling gear ashore and cost savings mounted. And as containerisation took full effect, now 20 tons were lifted every three minutes ship to shore rather than moving 20 tons an hour with the old breakbulk method - that is having gangs of 20 burly dockers using bailing hooks to lug cubic-metre boxes into cargo nets, hoist them into open-top holds to be stowed willy-nilly by other dockers who would put them in anywhere they could.

Such was the scene in major sub-Saharan African ports in east, west and southern Africa, because not only does North Africa have the Nile and high-tech ports on the Red Sea like Suez and Jeddah, it also has the ancient harbours of North Africa - from Morocco to Egypt to handle the busy and fully modernised Mediterranean trade.

But such benefits eluded much of Africa, according to Juanita Maree, CEO of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF). Big-is-better developments in containerisation did Africa little good. Having few substantial rivers and coastal deep water the advent of bigger more modern ships ship brought little benefit. The Nile serves the north and the mighty Congo serves the Congo basin, one of the least developed of the lesser developed countries.
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"For many African countries, it has been challenging to develop ports of entry and connected transport infrastructure that keeps up with the growth trend of containerised vessels," said Dr Maree, writing in Fort Lauderdale's Maritime Executive.

"Many of Africa's ports are not deep or wide enough to handle such large vessels. And should the vessels be able to berth at African ports, the ports would still need the equipment to offload such large vessels," she said.

"One should also consider whether the African market will have sufficient demand and supply of cargo to be accommodated by larger ships. Are there enough additional trade opportunities for imports and exports to make it worth the cost? The cost of deepening and widening the berths at ports of entry, the cost of purchasing additional loading cranes, and the need to upgrade infrastructure within the ports should be justified by the expected increase in volumes of cargo and income," she said.

"Furthermore, the overall capacity of domestic infrastructure should be considered. Does Africa have the infrastructure to facilitate such an influx of goods once ports are upgraded to accommodate these larger vessels? Hinterland connections must have the capacity to accommodate increased volumes in terms of road and rail infrastructure," said Dr Maree.

Over the past 50 years, the capacity of containerships has increased 1,500 per cent, doubling over the past decade alone. The exponential growth of container vessels can be attributed to shipping lines' focus on economies of scale. The more containers they can load on a vessel, the greater the income generated by these vessels. Thus, larger vessels carrying more containers and increase profit per voyage for each vessel. The increase in capacity relates to significant changes in the length, depth, and beam of a ship.

"African countries' trade relies heavily on seaports and shipping, as most of their trade is sea-borne. In 2019, African ports represented close to seven per cent of world maritime exports and about five per cent of global maritime imports, according to UNCTAD," Dr Maree said.

"African countries will need to focus more on diversification to integrate into regional and global value chains," she said.

Dr Maree then suggests that diversification requires that Africa shift resources to manufacturing and concentrate on value-added products. One wonders if this is indeed the case, after recalling a Canadian visitor's experience of being dazzled by the variety of bright African textiles on sale in an open Pietermaritzburg market only to discover after a joyful purchase that all he had bought had been made in China. Thus, it might well be advisable to do what one does well rather than doing what one would like to do well when other do it better and more cheaply.

What could be done with greater profit is to police and enforce the spirit of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) so that the overland supply chains are smoothed out to ensure there are no larcenous roadside stops as goods move across borders in the interior?

Targeted interventions by national, regional, and international players can bring about such changes to the African trades and, hopefully, its readiness to capitalise on larger containerships.

By finding cost savings elsewhere in the supply chain beyond marine terminal operations, Africa can tap into the bigger-is-better world. The recent trend towards building and chartering 7,000-TEU ships and slowing of orders of 20,000 plus TEUers is yet another indication of what is to come.