Togo, a country in the west-central Africa, neighboring countries in clockwise Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin, and the southern border of the Gulf of Guinea, is a small country bordering the sea. It has an area of 57,000 square kilometers, about half of Jiangsu Province, and a population of 7.61 million. The capital and largest city is Lomé.
In Africa, which is generally large in size, Togo is a small and humble country. Originally a Portuguese colony, colonists took advantage of Togo's convenient location for the slave trade. It was later seized by Germany and became a German colony in Africa.
After germany's defeat in World War II, Togo was divided between Britain and France, and the territory of West Togo occupied by the British was later incorporated into Ghana, which became the historical source of the dispute between Togo and Ghana after independence.
Post-independence Togo, like most African countries, is one of the world's least developed countries, affected by its war and colonial history, with a weak industrial base, slow economic development and large dependence on international foreign aid.
Agricultural products, phosphates and entrepot trade are Togo's three pillar industries. The main mineral resource is phosphate, which is the third largest producer in sub-Saharan Africa, with proven reserves: 260 million tons of high-quality ore, about 1 billion tons containing a small amount of carbonate. Other mineral deposits include limestone, marble, iron and manganese.
Relative to many landlocked countries, Togo is fortunate. Southern Togo is bordered by the Gulf of Guinea and has a coastline of about 55 km. 55 kilometers is not a long distance, and it takes less than 1 hour to drive the entire distance. But for Togo, where the average distance from east to west is no more than 100 kilometers, it can almost be called facing the sea.
From the map, Togo's terrain is narrow and long, squeezed in the middle by Ghana and Benin, the width of north and south is almost the same, and the shortest distance from east to west should be the southernmost coastline of Togo.
At first glance, togo's coastline is nothing special, under careful inspection, the neighboring benin has a strange coastline, deep into the territory of Togo 20.5km, this coastline north of Togo, south of the ocean, the average straight line distance between the north and south is only about 1km. The boundary of this section is demarcated according to an old river channel, which should be related to the division of The African sphere of influence by the Great Powers.
In addition to being partially blocked by neighbouring countries, there is a lake in the middle of Togo's southern coastline. Lake Togo is only 13 square kilometers, which is half the size of Macau. But the tragedy is that this lake is located in the middle of Togo's southern coast, no more than 3 kilometers from torogo's southern coastline, unless lake Togo and Guinea are opened, or the lake is filled in, it will be even more difficult for Togo to build a large port.
There is no inland ship traffic in Togo and there are two larger ports, Kpémé and Lomé.
Located on the northwestern side of the Bay of Benin on Togo's southern coast, Port Pemei is Togo's phosphate export port. Income from the export of phosphates is the main source of togo's economy, which accounts for about half of togo's total exports.
Port Pemei is mainly anchored by Ro-Ro bulk carriers. The port area mainly has a pier with a shoreline of 180 meters long, and a long embankment of about 1000 meters is connected to the shore. On the east side of the pier, there is a row of 4 mooring piers for berthing, with a maximum draft of 11.5 meters, equipped with a conveyor belt containing phosphate ore. The port exports about 3 million tons of phosphate ore per year. In addition to exporting phosphate ore, imports are mainly petroleum.
The Lomé Autonomous Port is the main channel for Togo's foreign trade and is the only deep-water port in West Africa, with an annual throughput capacity of more than 8 million tons. More than 90 per cent of Togo's imports and exports are transported through the port, and about one-fifth of the imports of landlocked West African countries are re-exported through the port to Burkina Faso (50 per cent), Mali (13 per cent), niger (11 per cent) and other countries such as Benin, Ghana and Nigeria (26 per cent).
Known as the "Switzerland of Africa", the Port of Lomé is located on the northwestern side of the Bay of Benin on togo's southwest coast and is the largest seaport in Togo.
Lomé Container Terminal Limited (LCT), located in Lomé, the capital of Togo, was established in December 2008 by MSC subsidiary Thesar Maritime Ltd (TML) with a registered capital of 10 million West African francs. In December 2011, LCT signed a concession agreement with the Ministry of Transport of Togo and the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Togo, granting a 45-year (35+10) concession (from the time the project was put into production, which can be extended for another 10 years after the expiration of the 35-year period). According to the concession agreement granted by the Government of Togo, when the construction of the LCT project is fully completed, the shoreline of the three berths will total 1050 meters, the water depth will be 16.6 meters, the area will be 53 hectares, and the average annual maximum throughput capacity is expected to be 2.2 million TEU.
In June 2012, China Merchants Port acquired a 50% stake in TML for 150 million euros, acquiring the development and operation rights of LCT. LCT has been officially opened in October 2014, as of the end of December 2015, LCT engineering 1, 2, 3 phases of the construction of all phases 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the project about 800 meters of shoreline and yard has been completed and put into use, equipped with 6 shore bridges and 17 field bridges. In 2016, the throughput reached 520,000 TEUs, an increase of 3.4% year-on-year.