200,000 cubic meters of timber stuck at Douala port

According Emmanuel Etoundi Oyono, the Director General of the Autonomous Port of Douala (PAD), the public company which manages the largest port infrastructure in Cameroon, about 200,000 cubic meters of timber are currently stored at the Douala port, because of the congestion of this infrastructure, which caused a slowdown in import-export activities for about 9 months.

According to the CEO of the PAD, the urgent evacuation of this timber stock, which blocks the port area, requires shipment of at least 3,000 cubic meters of timber each day.

According to authoritative sources, this performance is manageable by the Douala port, which in recent days, claims the "daily discharge rate reaching sometimes 4,000 m3 per day."

According to reports of the Facilitation Committee of International Maritime Traffic (FAL Committee), the massive timber storage at the Douala port for months is one of the main causes of congestion of the port.

FAL Committee also suggested that timber should no longer be allowed in the Douala port timber park, before the complete evacuation of the timber already stocked.

There are also plans to reopen the timber park of Kribi in the South Region, to resolve the crisis in the timber park of the Douala port.

This annoying situation to exporters comes as the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), in a report in May 2014, announced a “Pink Year” for the timber industry in Cameroon. "

The recent price increases for popular timber species are now consolidated with a frequent request and producers are confident that it will remain until the third quarter “...The Cameroonian exporters are particularly well placed with their orders until the last quarter of 2014 ", analyzed the ITTO.

Although she showed some concern over "the ability of producers to have enough logs to honour shipment schedules” ITTO wanted to give assurance to consumers of Cameroon timber that "Log exports from Cameroon are limited only to the secondary species which are very high and this level of demand supports the overall market. "

An analysis being now challenged by the difficulties observed in the port of Douala.