Douala Port Authority questions objectivity of World Bank’s port performance ranking.

According to the Managing Director of the Container Terminal Management, Dieudonné Lin Onana Doh, the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence “used an empirical observation of existing data”. 

The report, it should be said, ranks the Port Authority of Douala 370th out of 405. 

He explained that the World Bank erroneously used the duration of a vessel’s stay as a measure of container port cargo handling performance. Dieudonné Lin also said the World Bank relied on third party sample data and failed to give a measured terminal access to the data sample for verification prior to publication.

This, Dieudonné Lin argued, “raises the problem of objectivity”. He rhetorically questioned if it is “really possible to assess a port's performance without actually visiting it to gather the right information and make an assessment”. 

PAD, port complex doing well

In an outing to give clarifications on the rankings, which he said has been misinterpreted, the Managing Director of the Container Terminal Management was emphatic that the “Port Authority of Douala and its port complex are doing well”.

Dieudonné Lin insisted that “only devious minds and people with bad faith” would think otherwise in taking the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence port performance ranking for gospel. 

He further stated that it was such a report which clearly lacks elements of objectivity, that “PAD's detractors” hurriedly relayed the information, “which required not only a step back to better understand the spirit of this classification, but also to have a good understanding of modern ports management”. 

PAD’s detractors touting report

The Managing Director of the Container Terminal Management said it was in the same spirit of bad faith that ill-intentioned individuals took to online news sites to tout the Port Authority of Douala as grappling with management issues.

“In this ranking, as published, those who wanted to manipulate the document overlooked the fact that the Port of Douala is ahead of major ports with established reputations such as Le Havre in France, Cape Town and Durban in South Africa, Los Angeles in the United States of America, Djibouti and Cotonou in Benin. Do these ports also have problems of governance, as a certain kind of low-key press would make one believe?,” he questioned. 

Unfair calculations

Dieudonné Lin further faulted the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence port performance rankings, which classified the Port Authority of Douala as a port with more than 500,000 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units). 

“This is not just an error, it reinforces our argument about the efficiency and objectivity of in situ data collection. This category, which includes the Port of Douala-Bonabéri, demands more stringent criteria. The Port Complex of Douala-Bonabéri handles 380,000 TEUs,” he clarified. 

He argued further that the criterion used by the World Bank and S&P is the vessel's overall transit time from arrival in the port to departure, after handling operations, which is divided into the time spent in harbour and the stay at berth.

“With regards to time spent in harbour, ships stay in port to complete their export call and/or to complete the direct container removal procedure. As for stay at berth, Douala-Bonabéri being a tidal port, is at its advantage as even after completing its handling operations, the ship has to wait for the tide to leave. This lost time should not be counted against the Port of Douala-Bonabéri. For deep-sea ports, this is more practical; the ship leaves immediately after operations.  To compare both ports based on this criterion raises a problem of objectivity,” he explained. 

Transnet denounces World Bank report factual errors

South African rail, port and pipeline company, Transnet SOC Ltd, has in a report, also denounced what they qualified as factual errors in the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence port performance ranking. 

This is as per a report published June 12, by online news site, maritimafrica.com. 

The report indicates that on June 10, 2024, Transnet met with World Bank representatives to discuss factual errors in its recent 2023 Container Port Performance Index, CPPI. 

Transnet clarified that upon entering a port, a vessel is serviced by many role players before the actual loading and offloading of cargo, and these services contribute to the length of its stay.

The Bank’s measurement of vessel stay in port, it argued, does not take into consideration throughput and other factors that determine the duration of a stay. 

The report indicated that in the meeting, the Bank’s Transport Specialists advised that the CPPI is not a comprehensive indicator of container terminal performance and that it only seeks to advise on the stay of a vessel in a port.

Transnet holds the opinion that the index is not correctly titled as it is based on available data from Automatic Identification System, AIS, and liner shipping data. 

It argued that an accurate performance index can have a positive and constructive impact on plans to improve port cargo handling performance. On the other hand, an inaccurate index, it said, has damaging reputational impact on measured terminals. 

Transnet added that it is also key to afford measured terminals an opportunity to assess the sample data for verification. Transnet has not been afforded any opportunity to comment or verify the accuracy of the data or the facts attributed to it in the report.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3142 of Tuesday June 18, 2024