The Malian Shippers’ Council (CMC) has urged holders of empty shipping containers to return them to maritime carriers before August 31, warning that prolonged retention is disrupting supply chains, inflating transport costs, and pressuring the nation’s key trade corridors.
Operating under the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, the CMC described the thousands of empty containers sitting idle across Mali as a major operational concern. Typically returned to designated depots after unloading goods imported via ports like Dakar, Abidjan, Conakry, Lomé, and Tema, the unreturned units reduce equipment availability at coastal transit hubs and slow turnaround times for importers, freight forwarders, and logistics operators.
The Council warned that failure to return equipment could lead shipping lines to tighten deposit and guarantee requirements on Malian businesses. To incentivize compliance, several shipping companies have offered temporary concessions until August 31, though specific terms remain undisclosed. This latest appeal follows a February warning when the CMC identified over 4,000 immobilised empty containers in Mali—with Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and Hapag-Lloyd accounting for nearly 88 percent of the total—while 304 loaded containers sat awaiting movement at the Port of Dakar, highlighting a severe structural imbalance between incoming cargo flows and equipment returns.
With no updated metrics published since February, the estimate of more than 4,000 detained containers remains the primary benchmark, carrying steep financial consequences. Under standard corridor tariffs, daily detention fees after free periods can quickly accumulate to tens of millions of CFA francs per day across hundreds of unreturned units, threatening to drive up logistics overheads. The strain is especially severe along the critical Dakar-Bamako corridor, which handles roughly 60 percent of Mali’s external trade according to World Bank figures. Because returning empty units without return cargo is often financially unappealing for transport operators facing high fuel, toll, and maintenance expenses, the CMC emphasizes that meeting the August 31 deadline is crucial to restoring container circulation and preventing added shipping costs from trickling down to Malian consumers.
MD/te/Sf/lb/abj/APA