Port of Monrovia becomes enabled for night operations

A new navigation system will allow vessels to move in and out of the Liberian port at all hours.    A new port navigation system installed at Liberia’s Monrovia Free Port will enable 24-hour access by vessels for the first time in three decades, according to APM Terminals.
   The company, which won a 25-year concession in 2011 to operate the main terminal at the port, said the absence of buoys, lighting and electronic navigation systems limited port access to daylight hours.
   The new equipment includes 12 off-shore buoys and two land-based range markers, which were installed at a cost of about $500,000.
   About 350 vessels call the Port of Monrovia each year, but officials expect traffic to increase with the pending ascension of Liberia to the World Trade Organization this summer.
   APM Terminals Liberia handles about 95 percent of the country’s trade which includes 800,000 metric tons of general cargo as well as containerized trade. Container throughput at the facility was 98,000 TEUs in 2015.