Port passage costs and operational and commercial performance: the Douala port case[Coûts de passage portuaire et les performances opérationnelles et commerciales : le cas du port de Douala]

In the port context, the costs of stopover and cargo handling are bound to the stopping times. When these are well controlled, they constitute the element of the operational performance of the ports whose any failure would lengthen the transit time and would inevitably increase port passage costs. In spite of a global context favorable to the expansion of maritime traffic, would a variation in port costs have a significant effect on the commercial performance of ports via their level of traffic? Our research aims to assess the existing interferences between port passage costs and operational and commercial performances, in the case of the port of Douala. A two-phase methodological approach allows firstly, in the light of the facts, to establish that the infrastructural constraints of certain ports such as that of Douala, are such as to prolong the time spent by ships at the port, which increases port costs; secondly, it is about the analysis of the possible significance of the relationship between port costs (variable x) and the level of traffic (variable y).