Most African ports lack the depth and facilities to handle the ultra-large vessels that shuttle between California and Asia. So rather than switch vessels from Africa to the trans-Pacific, carriers have reduced the capacity available to African shippers by assigning smaller ships to ports like Mombasa. For one service by the French carrier CMA CGM that stops at the Kenyan docks, the average vessel capacity has fallen by 22 percent since the beginning of 2020, according to Teodoro.

Source: The North Africa Journal December 17, 2021 00:02 UTC