© 2026 Observater Surveys and Services Group. All rights reserved.
Observater Surveys and Services Group · Togo · Lomé Port
We offer all round cargo and marine survey services in ports, cargo yards, warehouses, and job sites in Togo and neighbouring states, through our surveyors on the ground and auxiliary services through our partners. Our cargo surveyors in Togo attend discharge and loading, tally and out-turn, draft surveys, container and transshipment work, cold chain, fertilizer, wheat and rice cargoes, and phosphate exports; our marine surveyors in Togo attend vessel condition, on/off hire, hatch cover watertight testing, tank cleanliness, hull and machinery, P&I, and bunker surveys.
Importers, exporters, insurers, P&I clubs, charterers, shipping lines, banks, and forwarders instruct the same group, under one rule: one interest per matter. As a principle of operation, our surveyors do not lie.
Get a Surveyor Moving Email the InstructionThe box relays with the seal as its only witness. Lomé is West Africa’s transshipment hub: a container changes vessels here and the through claim spans two carriers. Seal examination and condition at the relay decide it.
The corridor multiplies the doubt. Cargo cleared at Lomé changes hands again at Kara, at Cinkassé, at Ouagadougou. Without a record at each custody change, the last holder pays for every leg.
The phosphate figure has three authors. At Kpémé the mine’s figure, the ship’s figure, and the contract figure rarely agree. The independent draft survey is the one that survives.
The stem reads more than it delivered. Lomé’s anchorage is one of the coast’s busiest fuel grounds, and aerated fuel sounds higher than it is. Measurement during the stem is the only claim that works.
Our highly trained marine cargo surveyors carry out all types of cargo and marine surveys and inspections at Lomé Port, Togo. On the cargo side, our highly trained cargo surveyors carry out all types of cargo surveys, cargo inspections, and cargo superintendence at Lomé Port, Togo, and across the country, through the group’s active operations in the region: discharge and loading supervision, tally and out-turn surveys, draft surveys, container and seal surveys, pre-shipment inspection, warehouse and stock surveys, cargo damage surveys, P&I cargo surveys, loss control, and cargo claims. Our highly trained marine surveyors carry out all types of marine surveys, ship surveys, and vessel inspections in Togo: on/off hire bunker survey and inspection services, ship condition surveys, hatch cover watertight testing, tank cleanliness inspection, holds inspections, hull and machinery damage surveys, casualty attendance, P&I condition surveys and attendance, club entry condition surveys for owners entering or renewing with their clubs, and bunker surveys: BQS, ROB, and MARPOL sampling. Dedicated pages: cargo surveyors in Lomé, marine surveyors in Lomé, and bunker surveyors in Lomé.
Cargo discharge surveyors and loading surveyors in Lomé attend on one instruction; tally surveyors count at every exchange; draft surveyors in Lomé fix the weight the invoice settles on; and cargo damage surveys in Lomé attend the same day the damage is found, with cargo claims in Togo handled through to recovery.
Our ship surveyors in Lomé cover every vessel matter above at the berth and at the anchorage: every marine survey a vessel needs at Lomé Port, Togo, on a single instruction, with the report written to the standard clubs, underwriters, and adjusters accept.
West Africa’s only natural deep-water port: container terminals, conventional berths, ro-ro ramps, and tanker facilities, sheltered behind two breakwaters. Our surveyors attend every berth, from the container quays to the general cargo sheds, and the warehouses and cargo yards behind them.
Boxes relay through Lomé for the whole coast and the interior. We attend seal examination, interchange condition, and the count behind a broken seal, the three facts that decide a through-carriage claim.
Togo’s phosphates load at the dedicated wharf at Kpémé, up the coast from Lomé. Draft surveys, moisture sampling, and loading supervision fix the tonnes the contract pays on.
One of the region’s busiest bunkering and ship-to-ship grounds. Our surveyors board offshore for bunker quantity surveys, transfers, on/off hire, and condition attendance, day and night.
The Burkina Faso corridor: Lomé is Ouagadougou’s ocean gateway, and cargo for the Sahel clears here first. We attend at the port and follow the file to the border.
The Niger corridor: transit cargo bonded at Lomé moves north with its seals and its paperwork. Condition and count fixed at the port are what the interior settlement stands on.
Our diligently trained experts offer draft surveys, tally, cargo out-turn surveys, discharge supervision, SOF and delay reports, steel pipe and steel coil out-turn and tally count surveys, condition surveys, and colour label identification, among many other services as instructed. Tally clerks count at the hatches and the gates; draft surveyors measure the vessel before the operation and after it, the difference being the cargo weight with the full calculation attached; and the out-turn survey reconciles the manifest against what actually landed, so the receiver, the insurer, and the bank read one figure instead of three. Discrepancies in discharge operations and discharged quantities are found and addressed while the vessel is still alongside, and letters of protest are issued while they matter. You should not have to accept a figure you never saw measured.
A container’s story is its seal, its stow, and its condition at each exchange, and at a transshipment hub those exchanges multiply. Our surveyors examine seals against substitution and re-sealing, record interchange condition at the terminal, count behind broken seals, and attend stuffing and stripping in the port’s yards and warehouses, so the through claim lands on the leg that caused it. Out-turn cargo surveys, container damage inspection, vessel damage surveys, and claim cargo inspection run on the same instruction.
Frozen fish, poultry, and perishables land at Lomé for the whole corridor, and most cold chain instructions begin after the damage. Our surveyors read the temperature logger in full, compare set points against delivered temperatures, take pulp temperatures across the stow rather than at the door, and examine pre-cooling, stuffing, and the power and plug records, so the claim states where the cold chain actually broke. Sound cargo is segregated from damaged, salvage is managed, and the quantum is measured rather than accepted.
The staple trades through the Port of Lomé feed Togo and the Sahel behind it, and each one loses money in its own way. These are the surveys instructed most, by the parties with the most to lose.
Fertilizer for Togo and the corridor is hygroscopic: exposed to weather it cakes by the hour and loses value by the tonne. Our surveyors follow it hatch to weighbridge, with the weather log and every stoppage on record.
Wheat settles between the silo, the ship, and the contract, and the three rarely agree on paper. Draft surveys around the operation, silo reconciliation, and sampling for moisture and infestation reduce the three figures to one.
Rice is bought by the bag and lost by the bag: torn at the sling, wetted in the stack, short at the door, and short again at Ouagadougou. Our tally counts at every point where the number can change, and the count is the claim.
Togo’s exports sell on weight, moisture, and grade to buyers who never see the quay. Sampling, sealed splits, and certificates written to letter-of-credit wording defend the price after the ship has sailed.
Phosphates are Togo’s signature export, and they settle the way all mineral cargoes settle: on draft surveys, moisture, and analysis. Our surveyors attend loadings at the Kpémé wharf with independent drafts before and after, sampling drawn and sealed for the contract’s laboratory terms, stoppages and weather logged as they happen, and certificates issued in the wording the sale documents demand. The mine holds one figure, the ship another, and the buyer’s discharge port will produce a third; the independent figure taken at loading is the one the seller collects on and the one a shortage claim is answered with. Clinker, gypsum, and other bulk minerals over Lomé are attended with the same discipline.
The import trade through the Port of Lomé runs on rice, wheat, sugar, frozen foodstuffs, fertilizer, cement and clinker, fuel, used vehicles, and containers for Togo and the Burkina Faso and Niger corridors, and every one of those cargoes can lose quantity or condition between the hatch and the gate. Outbound, cotton, soya, cashew, sesame, and phosphates load against contracts that pay on analysis and measured weight. Our surveyors attend both directions end to end: condition at the rail, tally at every custody change, draft surveys where the weight settles, sampling where quality decides payment, and certificates and letters of protest issued while they still matter, so the price agreed in Togo is the price defended at destination.
Our marine services include on/off hire bunker survey and inspection services, ship condition surveys, hatch cover watertight testing, and tank cleanliness inspection. On-hire and off-hire surveys record the vessel compartment by compartment with bunkers established in the same attendance; hatch covers are tested tight before the cargo is at risk under them; holds and tanks are confirmed clean, dry, and fit before loading, while there is still time to correct what is not. When a vessel is damaged at or off Lomé, hull and machinery surveyors establish cause, nature, and extent in the form adjusters and average agreements use, and casualty attendance boards while the evidence is still aboard.
We offer insurance survey services for insurers, ship operators, P&I clubs, and marine law firms, and we help our clients with claim analysis and settlement. A damaged consignment is not an abstraction: somebody has already paid for that cargo, and without evidence the loss quietly becomes theirs. When cargo arrives damaged, the evidence has a short life: our cargo damage surveys establish cause, nature, and extent while it exists, segregation stops the loss growing, and protests are issued in time to matter. P&I cargo surveys measure the claim before it is paid, quantum counted rather than accepted, and our claims handlers build the file to the standard adjusters accept and pursue it to recovery, one interest per matter, with findings reaching the instructing party first.
Discharge, tally, draft, damage, and claims at every berth: the Lomé cargo page.
Condition, on/off hire, watertight testing, H&M, and P&I: the Lomé marine page.
BQS at berth and anchorage, ROB, shortage investigations: the Lomé bunker page.
Drafts, moisture, and loading certificates at the mineral wharf, covered on this page above.
Interchange condition and seal examination at the relay, covered above and on the Lomé cargo page.
Transit condition and count fixed at the port, followed to the border, covered in the corridors section above.
Importers & receivers. The consignment lands at Lomé with the invoice already paid. Our count and condition record decide whether the receiver absorbs the loss or recovers it.
Exporters & shippers. Cotton, soya, cashew, and phosphates argue from documents after sailing. Weight, sampling, and certificates fixed at loading are the seller’s voice at destination.
Insurers, P&I clubs & correspondents. One appointment per matter, impartial attendance, flash findings inside a day, quantum counted rather than accepted.
Charterers, owners & operators. Holds passed before the laycan, drafts read independently, on/off hire and bunkers fixed in one attendance.
Shipping lines, forwarders & clearing agents. The relay and the road multiply the hands on the cargo. Our record at each exchange covers the links you never controlled.
Banks, traders & lawyers. Trade finance and recovery both rest on the file: cause, custody, and quantum documented early, in the form adjusters and tribunals accept.
Named surveyor, scope in writing. Before anything starts you know who attends, when, and exactly what they will do, on paper.
The fee agreed first. The fee is put in writing before work begins, so the decision is made with the numbers in front of you.
One interest per matter. If we act for the other side in your dispute, we tell you and decline. Independence is the product.
Work starts on your go-ahead. Nothing begins until you confirm in writing, findings reach you first, and we answer 24/7.
“Seal examination at the relay found the substitution before the second leg sailed. That one attendance paid for the year.”Transshipment operator, Lomé
“Caking was documented hatch by hatch with the weather log attached. The fertilizer claim settled on the record, not on opinions.”Fertilizer receiver, Lomé
“Weight and moisture fixed at loading matched the contract, and the buyer paid against the certificates without a query.”Soya exporter, Togo
Attendance in Togo runs through the group’s active operations in the region: send the vessel, the consignment, or the matter, and who attends, when, and on what basis is confirmed in writing before work begins. Port and anchorage attendance runs day and night.
Lomé Port end to end, the container terminal and transshipment operations, the Kpémé phosphate wharf, the Lomé anchorage and STS zone, and the cargo yards, warehouses, and job sites behind them, with corridor cargo followed to the Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali borders.
The fee depends on the scope: the cargo or vessel, the attendances needed, and what must be measured or sampled. Scope and fee come back in writing before work begins, so the decision is made with the numbers in front of you.
Yes. Seal examination, interchange condition, and the count behind a broken seal are attended at the terminal, so the through-carriage claim lands on the leg that caused it.
Yes: bunker quantity surveys at the berth and the anchorage, on/off hire ROB, shortage investigations, and MARPOL sampling run from our page for bunker surveyors in Lomé.
It records quantity and condition at an agreed point: count or draft survey for how much, examination, photographs, and sampling for what state, and a report with the full evidence attached, issued first to the instructing party.
The cheapest attendance is the one before the loss
Receivers have to prove shortages they already paid for. Shippers have to defend a price at a destination they will never see. Owners and charterers have to settle redelivery, bunkers, and demurrage on figures somebody else wrote. Clubs and underwriters have to measure claims before paying them, lines and forwarders have to put damage on the leg that caused it, and banks have to know the collateral is real. Whichever seat you hold, send the vessel, the consignment, or the dispute, and the surveyor’s name, the attendance time, and the fee come back in writing before anything starts. One interest per matter: when we take your appointment, we act for your side only, and the findings reach you first.
Get a Surveyor Moving Email the InstructionInternational Marine Cargo Surveyors, Claims Handlers and Technical Consultants in Africa. On-ground expertise, global reach: anywhere you go in Africa, we are already there, with capacity to serve globally.
Observater Surveys and Services Group · ops@observater.com · All attendances are performed under our standard terms of business, available on request. Also see: Cargo Surveyors in Lomé · Marine Surveyors in Lomé · Bunker Surveyors in Lomé · Marine and Cargo Survey, Lomé Port · Africa coverage · Nigeria.
When precision matters, Observater Surveys Group is your Partner of Choice
© 2026 Observater Surveys and Services Group. All rights reserved.