OTAL changes agency offices in Cote d’Ivoire

West African shipping specialist, OT Africa Line (OTAL) has changed its shipping agency offices in Abidjan and has appointed a new agent, SAGA, at San Pedro, the country's second largest port.

With effect from March 2001, OTAL Ivoire will be fully operational and open to receive Ivorian cargo on a continuous basis, handling all documentary processing, trucking, shipping and logistics.

OTAL's marketing manager, Paul Page, explains:

"The OTAL Ivoire team has transferred from our previous agency, SNM, and is headed up by Jean Michel Silue, the line's veteran agency director based in Abidjan. Jacques Baudelot remains OTAL's commercial manager, between them helping to ensure agency continuity and the same high level of service.

"Given the complexities of the West African market, shippers will benefit from the experience and focus of a familiar team and a shipping line that continues with its own agency services."

OTAL Ivoire will cover all aspects of the transport logistics chain with customer services being offered in the following areas:

- Seafreight services direct to Europe with worldwide links via OTAL's intermodal services.
- Ivorian seafreight clearing and oncarriage.
- Logistics services catering for goods transiting/emanating from the land-locked countries of Burkina-Faso, Mali and Niger.
- Specialist project shipments to greenfield sites throughout Cote d'Ivoire.
- Stevedoring.
- Storage and warehousing - with 10,000 square metres of storage and warehousing space.
- Consolidation and stripping operations using 24,000 square metres of space.
- Reefer facilities for imports and exports including Ivorian exports of tropical fruits such as pineapples, bananas and papaya.
- Customs clearance and documentation processing.
- The provision of a fleet of trucks, chassis, forklifts and roll trailers, including maintenance and repair equipment.

Paul Page continues:

"Given the large number of calls made in these ports and the increasing volumes of cargo handled, OTAL Ivoire and SAGA will play an important role in our future development."

OTAL's multipurpose ro-ro vessels call at Abidjan every 11 days and its container service calls every 10 days at San Pedro under inducement. Transit times from northwest Europe to Abidjan and San Pedro are 10 and 9 days respectively.