Country desk
Lomé is the only naturally deep port on the Gulf of Guinea and a container transshipment hub for West Africa, with a recognised bunkering anchorage and the phosphate terminal at Kpémé along the coast.
Ship agency in Togo from Maingate Shipping means one instruction for every Togolese port, one proforma DA format, one reporting style and one desk that knows the vessel from her last call. The cargoes are phosphate, cotton and cocoa outbound; transshipment containers, wheat, clinker, fuel and rice inbound; the hinterland is wider than the country, since Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali through the Lomé corridor.
Authorities: the autonomous port of Lomé and the container terminal operators. Formalities are filed by the desk at each port.
The operational fact the desk tells every principal at nomination: ship-to-ship bunkering at the Lomé anchorage draws vessels that never touch the berth, and the transshipment terminal keeps berth windows tight.
Each port has its own desk with the terminals, the cargo and the services a call needs.
Togo's ports are Lomé. Lomé handles transshipment containers, wheat, clinker, fuel and rice inbound, with phosphate, cotton and cocoa outbound through the container terminals including the transshipment hub, the general cargo and bulk berths, and the phosphate loading terminal at Kpémé along the coast.
Calls at each port are attended by our partner agent there under Maingate's instruction, with the Mombasa desk issuing the proforma DA, tracking the call and closing the account.
Much of what lands in Togo is going somewhere else: Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali through the Lomé corridor. The receiver's clearing agent, the transit bond, the delivery order and the truck or wagon are as much part of the call as the crane, and the desk keeps them moving with the discharge.
Documents follow the cargo inland; quantities are reconciled at the quay before the vessel sails.
Formalities in Togo run through the bodies that govern the ports: the autonomous port of Lomé and the container terminal operators. The desk knows their forms, their hours and their cut-offs, files ahead of ETA and keeps the vessel's documents ready for inspection.
The principal sees the result as a pre-arrival confirmation, daily reports and a departure report, not as a pile of forms.
Ship-to-ship bunkering at the Lomé anchorage draws vessels that never touch the berth, and the transshipment terminal keeps berth windows tight. Crew changes, bunkers, spares, cash to master and medical cases are handled at the port that suits the itinerary, and the desk tells the principal at nomination which port that is.
Owners whose charterers appoint the cargo agent place these matters with the desk as protecting agent.
Lomé are covered with their own desks; other ports and anchorages are handled on request.
Our partner agent at each port, appointed and instructed by Maingate Shipping; the Mombasa desk coordinates and is responsible to the principal.
Yes. The Africa agency line handles the whole itinerary on one instruction with a DA per port.
Pre-arrival confirmation, daily reports, a departure report with the statement of facts and a final DA with receipts, in one style at every port.
The same working day, with a proforma DA and the checklist of documents the port and the receiver will want.
Nominate Maingate Shipping and the answer comes from Mombasa with a proforma DA attached.
The Togo desk connects to the port desks below and to the Africa agency line.
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