Autonomous Port of Dakar

Autonomous Port of Dakar
The port of Dakar in 2007
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Location
Location	Dakar, Senegal
Coordinates	14°40′50″N 17°25′40″W / 14.680556°N 17.427778°W / 14.680556; -17.427778
Details
Opened	1866
Owned by	Senegal
Type of harbour	Natural/Artificial
Statistics
Annual cargo tonnage	9.9 million tonnes (2006)

The Autonomous Port of Dakar (French: Port autonome de Dakar, abbreviation: PAD) is a Senegalese public enterprise which is headquartered in Dakar, located in the east of city.^[1] Thanks to the strategic position that gives it a sheltered harbor, it is now the third largest port in West Africa after the Autonomous Port of Abidjan and the Port of Lagos It is also the ninth-largest port on the African continent.

The port has one of the largest deep-water seaports along the West African coast. Its deep-draft structure and 640-foot-wide (200 m) access channel allows round-the-clock access to the port. Its current infrastructure includes tanker vessel loading and unloading terminals, a container terminal with a storage capacity of 3000 20-foot-equivalent units, a cereals and fishing port, a dedicated phosphate terminal and a privately run ship repair facility. The port's location at the extreme western point of Africa, at the crossroad of the major sea-lanes linking Europe to South America, makes it a natural port of call for shipping companies.

Nearby over 10 km west of the port is Les Mamelles Lighthouse (also the Ouakam Lighthouse) in which the port maintains together with its beacons.