Direct shipping service from Gulf of Mexico to West Africa signals diversifying AGOA trade
The U.S. port of Houston has announced a new shipping service that it says offers the only regular direct container service from the Gulf of Mexico to West Africa.
Italy-based Grimaldi shipping company will visit Houston every 11 days with six ships rotating between Houston’s container terminals and 15 West African ports including in Nigeria, Ghana and Guinea, according to the HoustonChronicle.
The first ship, the Grande Guinea, left the Port Authority’s Barbours Cut container terminal in Houston on Friday.
“The Gulf (of Mexico) region is an important market in the growing trade from the U.S. to West Africa,” a Grimaldi spokesperson said, according to WorldCargoNews. “We are excited to be able to offer manufacturers, traders and the oil and gas sector a regular direct container service from Houston to a wide range of ports on the West African coast.”
Cargo volumes on this corridor have held up reasonably well, despite the oil price slump and cutbacks in oil exploration budgets, WorldCargoNews reported. “The favorable trading and investment environment created by the U.S. government’s Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) has resulted in a more diversified trade.”
With more than 100 vessels, Grimaldi is one of the largest operators of multipurpose roll-on-roll-off tonnage in the world. It is well established in the West Africa market.
In addition to Houston, all Grimaldi’s sailings will include service calls to Jacksonville, Savannah, Baltimore and New York in the U.S. and Dakar, Senegal; Cotonou, Benin; Lagos, Nigeria; and Tema, Ghana, according to WorldCargoNews.
“Having an established carrier like Grimaldi expanding operations into Houston is an extremely positive development and businesses will appreciate having direct service across our docks to and from West Africa,” said Ricky Kunz, chief commercial officer at the port of Houston Authority.
Roll-on, roll-off cargo includes anything driven on and off the ship such as cars and tractors, according to the HoustonChronicle.
Read related news articles
After record season, United States opens new ports to South African citrus exports
The United States government has announced the opening up of several new ports for the import for citrus products from South Africa, further facilitating two-way trade with South Africa. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service published a final notice in the U.S. Federal Register on November 5th [see document alongside] approving the use of additional ports options for South African citrus...
19 January 2021
Ghana Apparel Training Centre launched to develop garment industry
In efforts to support Ghana’s garment manufacturing industry, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, together with its partners – Ethical Apparel Africa (EAA), Gerber, Groz Beckert, Freudenberg and Accra Technical Training College (ATTC), have officially launched the Ghana Apparel Training & Service Centre, in Accra. The launch forms part of a public-private partnership between the German Federal...
27 November 2020
US sets lower annual apparel import cap under AGOA
The US has set new lower annual limits on duty and quota-free imports of apparel articles assembled from regional and third-country fabric under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in the upcoming fiscal year. The new figures are released by the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) for the 12 months from 1 October 2020 to 30 September 2021. The annual limits are set out in the AGOA Acceleration Act of 2004,...
18 September 2020
Event: Live webinar on importing textiles and apparels into the US
Allfashion sourcing launches its first webinar in a series leading up to its virtual event in November. The webinar series is supported by the USAID Southern Africa Trade and Investment Hub. Date: 24 August 2020Time: 15h00-17h00Theme: Importing Textiles and Apparels into the United States Join us for a training assembly where experts on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) program share the tools to...
20 August 2020
Mali obtains third-country-fabric eligibility under AGOA's apparel provisions
The US has designated West African country Mali as a lesser-developed beneficiary country under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The decision was included in a presidential proclamation outlining a number of changes to the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) following regular eligibility reviews, product reviews, and beneficiary developing country assessments. As a result, 30 days after the proclamation is published in the...
05 November 2019
East African textile sector tipped on maximising technology
Textile industry players in the region have been challenged to start making garments that require low level technology and skills as the East African Community (EAC) countries prepare to phase-out imported used clothes. Lilian Awinja, the Executive Director of the East African Business Council (EABC), said the sector can manufacture apparels such as inner garments, ties, scarfs that require low level technology and skills. “It is a high...
20 October 2017
Can you build a fashion business with a manufacturing base in Africa?
Liya Kebede made her first Lemlem garment in 2007 as a way to give back to Ethiopia, where the successful model was born and raised; a crucial stop before starring in Tom Ford campaigns and walking Miuccia Prada’s runway. She found a group in Addis Ababa, her hometown and the sub-Saharan African country’s largest city, to produce garments handwoven in the traditional technique, with the gauzy white cotton she wore growing up but had since...
23 February 2017
South Africa's IDC says it's 'invested R12 billion in textile and clothing industry'
The Independent Development Corporation (IDC) says it has invested about R12 billion in the textile and clothing industry in 2015. The IDC is one of the exhibitors at Source Africa - the annual pan-African textile, clothing and footwear trade event currently taking place in Cape Town. The event brings together manufacturers, buyers, suppliers and service providers from across the continent, Asia and even the United States of...
08 June 2016
Botswana to get garment training centre
The Botswana government has given the go-ahead for the Textile and Clothing Institute of Botswana (TCIB), the first of its kind in the country, to overcome a chronic shortage of skilled workers that has negatively impacted the textiles sector for many years. Its founder, Shahid Ghafoor, president of the Botswana Textile and Clothing Association, said TCIB was offering one-year certificate courses in clothing manufacturing in a wide variety of...
14 May 2016
The global market for denim: challenges and opportunities
The global denim business faces considerable pressures these days. The global recession of a few years ago has left a lasting impact on consumer spending. Expensive is out; cheap is in. Credit-fueled spending has given way to tight budgets as consumers continue to pay off their debts from the years leading up to the recession. As a result, sales of jeans in the United States, for example, have declined over the past several years, while the...
06 October 2014