Why Does Cargo Spend Weeks in African Ports? The Case of Douala, Cameroon

This paper investigates the main factors
explaining long container dwell times in African Ports.
Using original and extensive data on container imports in
the Port of Douala, it seeks to provide a basic
understanding of why containers stay on average more than
two weeks in gateway ports in Africa while long dwell times
are widely recognized as a critical hindrance to economic
development. It also demonstrates the interrelationships
that exist between logistics performance of consignees,
operational performance of port operators and efficiency of
customs clearance operations. Shipment level analysis is
used to identify the main determinants of long cargo dwell
times and the impact of shipment characteristics such as
fiscal regime, density of value, bulking and packaging type,
last port of call, and region of origin or commodity group
on cargo dwell time in ports is tested. External factors,
such as performance of clearing and forwarding agents,
shippers and shipping line strategies, also play an
important role in the determination of long dwell times.
Cargo dwell time distribution has many specificities,
including broad-tail, high variance or right-censoring,
which requires in-depth statistical analysis prior to any
design of policy recommendations.