There is a striking view from the road leading to Doraleh Container Terminal, in the east African state of Djibouti. The terminal, the first phase of which opened this year and will cost $400m to develop fully, lies on an artificial island in water deep enough to accommodate the latest large container ships. The approach is along a new, kilometre-long causeway. The huge, state-of-the-art container cranes at the end stand in stark contrast to the rest of run-down Djibouti City.

Back on the mainland, however, other parts of Djibouti’s logistics sector are still struggling with the bureaucracy and poor infrastructure more typical of Africa. DP World, the Dubai-based company that runs the Doraleh terminal and the old city-centre Port of Djibouti, has had to build a container yard away from the port to store boxes awaiting collection. Containers bound for neighbouring, landlocked Ethiopia have recently had to wait an average 109 days as the consignees grapple with the bureaucratic, financial and logistical problems of sending trucks from Ethiopia to collect them. A line of waiting vessels in the sea outside the old port testifies to the congestion these delays create.