economies Article The Impact of Port Performance on Trade: The Case of Selected African States Courage Mlambo   Citation: Mlambo, Courage. 2021. The Impact of Port Performance on Trade: The Case of Selected African States. Economies 9: 135. https:// doi.org/10.3390/economies9040135 Academic Editor: George R.G. Clarke Received: 7 July 2021 Accepted: 25 August 2021 Published: 24 September 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Department of Economics, Faculty of Management Sciences, Mangosuthu University, Umlazi 4031, South Africa; mlamboct@gmail.com Abstract: Maritime transport remains the main gateway to the global marketplace. Ocean ports are a central and necessary component in facilitating trade. Ports are essentially a channel of integration into the global economic system. Resourceful and well-connected container ports empowered by regular and consistent shipping services are key to reducing trade costs, including transport costs, connecting supply chains and supporting global trade. Consequently, port performance is an important factor that can influence countries’ trade competitiveness. However, for Africa, the ports are dilapidated, lack essential infrastructure, are congested and perform poorly. Africa’s shipping and ports do not always match global trends and standards. In light of this, this study seeks to assess Africa’s current port performance and test the relationship between Africa’s port performance and trade performance. Very few studies have attempted to investigate the impact of port performance on trade. Hence, it was worthwhile to study the impact of port performance on Africa’s trade. The study used panel data that covering the period 2005–2018. An ARDL panel technique was used for estimation purposes. Results showed that port performance positively affects trade. This study argues that African ports require expensive infrastructure to be able to compete successfully. Africa needs to pursue an intensive course of infrastructure development so as to maintain economic growth and improve port efficiency and trade competitiveness. At the moment, African ports are inefficient, and there is congestion partly because the ports cannot accommodate further expansion without serious investments. Keywords: maritime transport; ports; international trade; global economic system; infrastructure; port performance; trade competitiveness 1. Introduction Ocean ports are a central and necessary component in facilitating trade. According to Ndlendle (2018), trade competitiveness requires governments and key stakeholders to see ports as facilitators of trade and integrators in the logistics supply chain. Over 90% of international trade moves via the sea, making ports and their hinterlands vital for global trade (Sok 2016; Fugazza and Hofman 2017; International Maritime Organization 2018; Jha 2019; Chelin and Reva 2020; SAIMI 2020; Heiland and Ulltveit-Moe 2020). Shipping is the lifeblood of the global economy, and without shipping, efficient intercontinental trade would simply not be possible (International Chamber of Shipping 2020; United Nations Conference on Trade and Development cited in Marleny (2020)). This shows that Maritime transport is at the core of international trade, and in order for maritime transport to be efficient, there should be, among other things, well-functioning ports. Munim and Schramm (2018) argue that ports are the hub and node of networks for all kinds of waterborne transport and link countries with the rest of the world; accordingly, they promote transportation and distribution in an economical way. Ports are a primary conduit of international trade and are central to the growth of the global economy. Seaports are also an important locational determinant of exporters’ location (Nazarczuk et al. 2020). Greater strides should be made to ensure that ports are efficient and their operations are frictionless in order to spur trade. Economies 2021, 9, 135. https://doi.org/10.3390/economies9040135 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/economies