The CHCL is it down the regime? That's the question raised by the statistics summarizing the activities of the single local port operator. A drastic decrease in the rate of productivity is measured in terms of movement of containers per hour worked was recorded last year. This movement is, in fact, increased from 21.2 to 14.5 from January to December of last year.
It must be said that the international standard in terms of port productivity is around 15 movements. On the other hand, during the 2007-2008 fiscal year, the CHCL had conducted a thorough reform of its operations accompanied by a renewal of its facilities to the tune of Rs 1.7 billion. The World Bank, main sponsor of the corporation, was then imposed a benchmark of 17 movements to judge the effectiveness of these investments.
Since then, the productivity rate and the traffic in the harbour had recorded steady improvements year after year. Thus, the productivity rate had reached 20 bar in 2010 with a peak of 21.2 in January 2011. However, since then, the rate of productivity collapsed month after month to go below the threshold of 15 movements.
As for the traffic that is measured in terms of measuring twenty-foot containers - Twenty Feet Equivalent Unit (TEU) - it increased from about 300,000 TEU in 2006 to reach 440,000 in 2008. Since then, it remains above the bar 400 000 TEU. In 2011, the number of TEUs handled by the CHCL was around 440,000. A figure reassuring because it demonstrates that the port activities are, they, not down.
However, it is unlikely that the CHCL to renew its 2010 performance when she was elected best port operator in sub-Saharan region. It would be at the direction the problem.
The former CEO, Archimedes Lecordier is retired in December, leaving the leadership to his deputy, Jacques Faustin, who is temporarily acting. The latter would, too, to sail. The Director of Human Resources he was suspended from office by decision of the Board of Directors, December 5, 2011.