West Africa container boom runs into hard capacity limits

West Africa’s rapid container trade growth is colliding with persistent port congestion, as carriers scale up services to a region whose infrastructure remains unevenly matched to demand.

Maersk has applied congestion surcharges to shipments into Freetown, Conakry and Monrovia, with carriers reporting significant berthing delays across the region. Kuehne+Nagel’s late July operational update noted Conakry waiting times of around seven days, whilst Tema saw on-window vessels waiting approximately one day and off-window arrivals up to three days for berths.

The congestion comes as West Africa has emerged as one of container shipping’s faster-growing trades. Container Trades Statistics data shows the region’s box volumes have grown nearly 50% in less than a decade, outpacing global averages. Drewry expects volumes to climb more than 9% in 2025.