The Autonomous Port of Abidjan is a commercial port at

Treichville Treichville is a neighborhood in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. It is one of the 10 urban communes of the city. Treichville is one of four communes of Abidjan that are entirely south of Ébrié Lagoon, the others being Port-Bouët, Koumassi, and Marcory. ...

, in southern

Abidjan Abidjan ( , ; N’ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the economic capital of the Ivory Coast. As of the 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of overall population of the country, making it the sixth most populous city p ...

, Ivory Coast. It is a transshipment and intermodal facility and is managed as a public industrial and commercial establishment; the Director-General is Hien Sié. The Port of Abidjan opened in 1951 after the development of the Vridi Canal, which enables deep-sea ships to use the port. It is the most important port in West Africa and the second most important in Africa after the

Port of Durban The Port of Durban, commonly called Durban Harbour, is the largest and busiest shipping terminal in sub-Saharan Africa. It handles up to 31.4 million tons of cargo each year. It is the fourth largest container terminal in the Southern Hemisp ...

. It is a major contributor to the economy of Ivory Coast, and the greater part of the external trade of landlocked countries such as

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to ...

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesChad, and Guinea also passes through it. The port conforms to the

ISPS An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

code. It offers a variety of related services, refining and industrial processing facilities. The leading companies operating at the port are SDV-SAGA (which employs over 4,000 people), SETV Terminal Operating Company Vridi,

Sitarail Sitarail is a private company that has the concession to operate railway lines formerly operated by the government. Countries include: * Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso * Cameroon Sitarail is part of the Bolloré group. Timeline 2016 * Operati ...

and SIMAT.

History

The coast of Ivory Coast had been an important site of commerce since the 15th century, with maritime traffic using the ocean

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') ...

s as open roadsteads. During the French colonial period,

wharves A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring location ...

were constructed, the first two at

Grand-Bassam Grand-Bassam () is a town in southeastern Ivory Coast, lying east of Abidjan. It is a sub-prefecture of and the seat of Grand-Bassam Department; it is also a commune. During the late 19th century, Grand-Bassam was briefly the French colonial c ...

in 1897 and 1923, a third at Port-Bouët in 1931, and a fourth at

Sassandra Sassandra is a town in southern Ivory Coast. It is a sub-prefecture of and the seat of Sassandra Department. It is also a commune and the seat of Gbôklé Region in Bas-Sassandra District. Sassandra lies on the Gulf of Guinea at the mouth of ...

in 1951. Increasing traffic and the difficulty of handling large indivisible cargoes led to planning for the creation of a deep-water port. Beginning in 1892, Grand-Lahou,

and Bingerville were all studied as possible locations. In 1898, a French mission including Charles François Maurice Houdaille, Captain Thomasset and Robert Wallace Crosson-Duplessis visited Ivory Coast to select the location for the port, which would also be the terminus of a projected railway (what became the Chemin de Fer Abidjan-Niger). Among the factors leading to their choice of Abidjan were the existence of an offshore canyon and the fact that Abidjan was on the shortest route between

Bamako Bamako ( bm, ߓߡߊ߬ߞߐ߬ ''Bàmakɔ̌'', ff, 𞤄𞤢𞤥𞤢𞤳𞤮 ''Bamako'') is the capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2009 population of 1,810,366 and an estimated 2022 population of 2.81 million. It is located on the Niger Rive ...

and the Atlantic. To create the port, the

Ébrié Lagoon The Ébrié Lagoon lies in Ivory Coast, separated for almost all of its length from the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow coastal strip. The long lagoon is linked to the sea by the Vridi Canal, while the Comoë River flows into it. The lagoon averages ...

was to be connected to the ocean by cutting through the barrier island at Port-Bouët. This was attempted in 1906–07, but shifting sand dunes and flooding repeatedly undid the work. After hydrological studies in the Netherlands, the problem was solved by the construction of the Vridi Canal; this was started in 1935, suspended during World War II, and completed in 1950. The canal is long, wide and deep and enables deep-water vessels to use the port.

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...

funds helped pay for the work. The Port of Abidjan was officially opened on 5 February 1951 by François Mitterrand, then Minister of

Overseas France Overseas France (french: France d'outre-mer) consists of 13 French-administered territories outside Europe, mostly the remains of the French colonial empire that chose to remain a part of the French state under various statuses after decoloni ...

. The wharves at Port-Bouët and Grand-Bassam were subsequently closed. Since 23 December 1992, the Autonomous Port of Abidjan has been legally constituted as a State Corporation (''Société d'État'').

Economic activity

The Port of Abidjan is the most important port in West Africa and the second most important in Africa after the

. According to the Ivoirian Ministry of Economy and Finance, traffic through the port contributes to 90% of the customs revenues of Ivory Coast and 60% of the country's income. 70% of Ivoirian

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...

passes through the port; 65% of industrial entities in the country use it, representing a workforce of 50,000 dependent on it. 70% of the external trade of landlocked countries of Africa such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Chad, and Guinea also passes through the port. Traffic through the port reached 1,200,000 tons by 1962; in 2002 it was 16,309,596

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s; in 2013 it was 21.476 million tonnes, down from 21.713 million tonnes in 2012. In 2010 traffic was 22 million tonnes; to return to those levels, projects to enlarge the Vridi Canal, to deepen the port, and to add a second container terminal were undertaken in the 2010s. The port has also become a major industrial and manufacturing centre. Abidjan is also an important fishing port, with an annual production of 400,000 tonnes.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Organizations based in Abidjan Ports and harbours of the Atlantic Ocean Ports and harbours in Africa 1951 establishments in Ivory Coast Autonomous and independent ports Transport in Abidjan

History

Economic activity

References

Further reading

External links