The cessation of activity of 17 dry ports in Algeria causes real chaos due to overloading of seaports and on costs of stay with contractual breaches due to exceeding the unloading times.

Most dry ports, which were created at the initiative of the Bouteflikha governments,opened in hype and saucer by ministros and walis, during the last 7 years, they went into crisis following the implementation of the order of the Directorate-General of Customs of 20 July 2020 which proceeded to the closure of 7 of them and the temporary suspension of another 11, for a «maximum period of 2 months», to «bring these private facilities into conformity with the regulations», of which another 5 were warned.

The instruction provided for the entry «in order» of the 18 suspended or warned  ports (the 7 closures were final) within the expected period of 2 months, or, if not, the application of a definitive closure without notice. However, almost 8 months since the implementation of this measure, the Algerian administration has simply taken no action.

Administrators complain that, having carried out the adequacy work they were asked to do,  «theyhave not received any response from the administration, nor the lifting of the suspension, nor the indication of reservations,nothing.» In addition, there is a «discriminatorysituation because, compared to the 11 suspended facilities, the 7that were warned continue to operate, although regulatory irregularities werefound».

This situation harms the companies awarded the holding and its workers, but also the public finances and their customers, many of them Algerian industrial companies that have another added difficulty in supplying their raw materials and precursors and in general for all importers, shipowners, shipping companies and other operators in the international trade chain , which suffer delays resulting in penalties, oversized stays and breaches of contracts for increased discharge times due to overloading of state seaports.

Source. El Watan, 14/03/2021 –  https://www.elwatan.com/a-la-une/le-prejudice-dune-situation-non-assainie-14-03-2021