French logistics group Bollore said it was to build a third quay at Lome port in Togo for a cost of 300 billion CFA francs ($640 million), with a target of doubling container traffic within five years.

The project was launched at a ceremony with group president Vincent Bollore and Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe and which was broadcast by local media over the weekend.

The quay will be 450 metres long, 15 metres deep and able to take vessels up to 7,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units). The aim is to double within five years current container traffic of 350,000-400,000 a year, and to triple that within a decade, according to a news release.

Bollore shares handling activities at the port, one of the biggest covering the West African hinterland, with Manuport, a unit of French group GETMA.

The move comes a month after Bollore said it was looking to invest $150 million in a dry port in Guinea to ease shipment of goods through the world's top exporter of aluminium ore bauxite. (Reuters)