New equipment for timber decongestion at Douala Port

In a statement received in writing, the Lumberyards Operating Company of Cameroon (SEPBC), said a new handling equipment was acquired to help decongest the wood yard to the port of Douala.

The Lumberyards Operating Company of Cameroon (SEPBC), the concessionaire of the timber yard to the port of Douala evacuated during the month of October 2014, 122,562 m3 of wood (91,196 m3 of logs and 31,366 m3 sawn timber).

A performance that reinforced the decongestion of the timber yard of the port of Douala. For the last three months (August, September and October 2014), 246,196 m3 of logs and 82,550 m3 of sawn wood were delivered. These performances were recorded while the company took delivery of new handling equipment, to strengthen its operational capabilities.

It is a loader Volvo 220 G and a barge Speed ??Appro. (The loader Volvo 220 G is a machine handling loads up to 12 tonnes. Made by the company Volvo in Sweden, it specializes in loading dock ball, sorting and retrieval of packages on site. It makes handling operations in optimal conditions of safety and speed. And the barge brand Speed ??Appro is a flat-bottomed boat, without engine, generally used in convoys on the rivers and canals large gauge. It may carry 400 tonnes of cargo and ensures delivery operations of logs for vessels).

These investments, which amounted to 382 million CFA francs will significantly boost activity in the timber terminal. They are part of the investments made annually by SEPBC which Bolloré Africa Logistics is the largest shareholder, to improve the quality of its services. They help to substantially increase rates of unloading (trucks and cars) and load (crane and ramp) on the terminal.

The SEPBC also provides the acquisition before the end of 2014, a quay crane Grid which will locate investment SEPBC 2014 to over 2 billion CFA francs.

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Eric Gerbet, CEO SEPBC:

"The equipment purchased by SEPBC are the materialization of a desire to continue to provide our customers with quality service. We will stay the course with current performance. And I must also say that the dialogue that has prevailed between the players in the timber industry and SEPBC facing congestion, allowed us to bring together and unite our efforts to improve the performance of our timber terminal. Today we reach the peak load of approximately 4,700 m3 per day. We aim to reach the Cape of 6.000m3 wood removed daily."

Philemon Alfred Mendo, Deputy Director General SEPBC:

"Today we celebrate the success of an exemplary collaboration with the Directorate General of the Port of Douala. When we arrived we took the measure of the problems created by the massive influx of wood from Central Africa, Congo and even our country, Cameroon. With investments and mobilization of the entire staff and management of Bolloré Africa Logistics, we were able to reverse the trend and it is clear that we will maintain the systems put in place to continue to participate in the massive modernization of the port of Douala."

Jacques DUPANLOUP, Group of Wood Industry of Cameroon:

We are optimistic about a return to normal in a few months if investments are made to replace some of the equipment of the SEPBC ... We were aware of the order in June of this Volvo loader and we had the opportunity to meet with an official of the company SPEED APPRO that made the barge, so we were aware of these investments. We can only be happy and hope to resume within a reasonable time a business volume normal. We meet regularly with officials

SEPBC to make a point about changing things. We hope that it continues to provide the necessary fluidity to a real lumberyard bottlenecking ... But we are optimistic in view of the efforts made in recent times.