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Sudan
Marine Ports and Shipping
In 1990 Sudan had only one operational deep-water harbor, Port
Sudan, situated on an inlet of the Red Sea. The port had been
built from scratch, beginning in 1905, to complement the railroad
line from Khartoum to the Red Sea by serving as the entry and
exit point for the foreign trade the rail line was to carry. It
operated as a department of SRC until 1974 when it was transferred
to the Sea Ports Corporation, a newly established public enterprise
set up to manage Sudan's marine ports. Facilities at the port
eventually included fifteen cargo berths, sheds, warehouses, and
storage tanks for edible oils, molasses, and petroleum products.
Equipment included quay, mobile, and other cranes, and some forklift
trucks, but much of the handling of cargo was manual. There were
also a number of tugboats, which were used to berth ships in the
narrow inlet.
During the early 1970s, port traffic averaged about 3 million
tons a year, compared with an overall capacity of about 3.8 million
tons. Exports were somewhat more than 1 million tons and imports
about 2 million tons; about half of the latter was petroleum and
petroleum products. By the mid-1970s, stepped up economic development
had raised traffic to capacity levels. In 1985, however, largely
as a result of the civil war, exports were down to 663 thousand
tons (down 51 percent from the previous year) and imports were
2.3 million tons (down 25 percent from the previous year). Physical
expansion of the harbor and adjacent areas was generally precluded
by natural features and the proximity of the city of Port Sudan.
However, surveys showed that use could be increased considerably
by modernization and improvement of existing facilities and the
addition of further cargo-handling equipment. In 1978, with the
assistance of a loan from the IDA, work began on adding deep-water
berths and providing roll-on-roll-off container facilities. A
loan to purchase equipment was made by a West Germany body. The
first phase was completed in 1982, and the second phase began
in 1983, aided by a US$25-million World Bank credit. One of the
major improvements has been to make the port more readily usable
by road vehicles. Developed almost entirely as a rail-serviced
facility, the port had large areas of interlacing railroad tracks
that were mostly not flush with surrounding surfaces, thereby
greatly restricting vehicular movement. Many of these tracks have
been removed and new access roads constructed. Much of the cleared
area has become available for additional storage facilities.
In the early 1980s, the Nimeiri government announced a plan to
construct a new deep-water port at Sawakin, about twenty kilometers
south of Port Sudan. Construction of a new port had long been
under consideration in response to the projected growth of port
traffic in the latter part of the twentieth century. A detailed
study for the proposed port was made by a West German firm in
the mid-1970s, and plans were drawn up for three general cargo
berths, including roll-on-roll-off container facilities, and an
oil terminal. Major funding for the port, known as Sawakin, was
offered in 1985 by West Germany's development agency Kreditanstalt
für Wiederaufbau and the DFC. After the Nimeiri government repeatedly
postponed work on the port, the German government allocated the
funds instead for purchase of agricultural inputs. Once work resumed,
however, Sawakin port opened in January 1991, and was capable
of handling an estimated 1.5 million tons of cargo a year.
A national merchant marine, Sudan Shipping Line, was established
in 1962 as a joint venture between the government and Yugoslavia.
In 1967 it became wholly government owned. From the initial two
Yugoslav-built cargo vessels, the line had grown by the mid-1970s
to seven ships, totaling about 52,340 deadweight tons. During
1979 and early 1980, eight more ships were added, including six
built in Yugoslavia and two in Denmark. In 1990 the merchant marine
consisted of ten ships of 122,200 deadweight tons. The Yugoslav
vessels were all multipurpose and included container transport
features. The Danish ships were equipped with roll-on-roll-off
facilities. Sailings, which had been mainly between Red Sea ports
and northern Europe, were expanded in the late 1980s to several
Mediterranean ports.
Data as of June 1991
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