2,500 containers choke Douala Port; Biya’s men are threatening mass auctions ⁰

Approximately 2,500 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) are currently in “prolonged stay” at the Port of Douala’s container terminal, according to internal sources at the Container Terminal Authority (RTC SA). This term refers to containers that were offloaded over 90 days ago but have yet to be cleared by their owners.

To address the issue, which is contributing to port congestion, Lin Dieudonné Onana Ndoh, the Director General of RTC, issued a memo on May 7, 2025. The memo urged owners of these containers to “carry out all necessary procedures for immediate removal.” Ndoh’s note emphasized that the Douala port container terminal “is not a container storage area, but solely a transit zone for containers,” adding that “the allowable stay in the container yard is eleven working days, in accordance with current port regulations.”

Under current regulations, importers offloading goods at Cameroon’s ports receive an 11-day grace period during which no storage fees apply while awaiting customs clearance. After this period, storage charges are incurred. However, a port operator in Douala pointed out that “under the customs code, importers are required to clear and remove their containers within a maximum period of three months — that is, 90 days — otherwise, they are considered abandoned and transferred to the customs administration for auction.”

Currently, the presence of about 2,500 such containers at the Port of Douala is hindering the terminal’s optimal operations. Members of the port community suggest that the phenomenon is driven by the relatively low storage fees charged at the terminal compared to those at off-site warehouse facilities.

“Importers are tempted to leave their containers in the yard because it’s secure and the storage costs are much lower than outside the port,” explained a seasoned observer of Douala’s port logistics. “This behavior is not consumer-friendly, as the additional charges incurred by this practice are generally passed on to the product once it reaches the market, thereby fueling inflation.“

This is not the first instance of a large quantity of containers being abandoned at the Douala terminal. The practice appears to be entrenched among importers for the reasons mentioned. In 2014, for example, due to congestion caused by containers exceeding the 90-day limit, the Cameroonian government ordered their removal from the port. Nearly 1,000 containers were transferred from the terminal within the port to a three-hectare area known as the “Udeac-Cotco zone,” which was established to hold up to 2,900 TEUs.

Source: Business in Cameroon