MSC Altair berthed at Terminal 3 of Tema Port declaring a total throughput of 4,344 TEUs (Twenty Equivalent Unit) to be discharged and loaded. The Terminal Operations were completed with 3,290 crane moves in 29.5 hours, making a new record of 111.4 moves per hour against 103.9 recorded in December 2019. This is the all-time record for Terminal 3 at Tema Port, and is certainly by far the best in West Africa.
MSC Altair is one of the larger ships in a fleet of Container Vessels deployed on a weekly service into Ghana called AFEX (African Express), following the successful completion of MPS Terminal 3 at Tema Port. She is able to carry a capacity of 13,100 TEUs. Her length overall (LOA) is 366.46 metres and width 48.26 metres, and has Gross Tonnage of 141,65 tonnes.
The first sailing for the MSC AFEX service was from Xingang started in October 2019 with the MSC Ravenna vessel with total carrying capacity of 14,000 TEUs. Connecting Tema directly to several ports (Xingang – Busan – Gwangyang – Ningbo – Shanghai – Nansha – Shekou – Singapore – Colombo – Lomé – Tema – Durban – Port Louis – Colombo – Singapore – Xingang). This will not only offer faster transit time and better reliability in the West Africa region but also new business opportunities for clients between Far East, Oceania, Middle East, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Ghana.
Chief Executive Officer of Meredian Port Services (MPS) Moammed Samara and his team are proud to achieve this milestone and are determined taking on the next challenge.