© 2026 Observater Surveys and Services Group. All rights reserved.
Observater Surveys and Services Group · Tema · Ghana
From first hatch to final gate, our cargo surveyors in Tema cover the port’s full survey scope: loading and discharge supervision, tally and out-turn surveys, draft surveys, container and seal surveys, cargo damage surveys, P&I cargo surveys, loss control, pre-shipment inspection, and cargo claims. Who attends, when, and on what basis is confirmed in writing before anything starts.
Insurers, importers, shippers, P&I clubs, charterers, lines, banks, and forwarders instruct the same group, on the same rule: one interest per matter.
Get a Surveyor Moving Email the InstructionSomebody else’s number becomes yours. When discharge at Tema closes, the terminal, the ship, and the contract each hold a different figure. Whoever attends without a surveyor ends up settling on a number written by another interest.
The seal passed. The count did not. An intact-looking seal proves little: boxes are short-stuffed behind seals, resealed after pilferage, substituted in transit. What happened is only established by examining the seal, the stow, and the count together.
The rights were good. The file was thin. Most failed cargo claims die on evidence, not law. Cause, custody, and quantum put in writing in the first days is what separates a payment from a write-off.
Tema has its own way of testing a file. Cocoa out of Tema is priced on moisture, count, and defects months after the ship sails. Sealed splits drawn at loading are the only answer that survives the distance.
One matter at a port rarely travels alone. Our desks below stand at the same quay, on the same instruction line — choose the unit your matter needs.
Our highly trained cargo surveyors carry out all types of cargo surveys, cargo inspections, and cargo superintendence at Tema Port, Ghana, through our own local surveyors at the port, with every attendance confirmed in writing before work begins. Tema handles most of Ghana’s trade: containers, rice, frozen fish, and clinker inbound, cocoa and aluminium outbound, and the corridor to Burkina Faso behind it. Findings reach the instructing party first, and the report reads the same as the file from any port we serve. Also see: marine surveyors in Tema and our Ghana.
Inbound or outbound, bagged or bulk, boxed or breakbulk: if it crosses the quay at Tema, our cargo surveyors attend it, with cargo damage surveys in Tema attending the same day the damage is found.
One question decides every consignment over Tema: how much landed, and in what state. The receiver’s invoice, the shipper’s contract, the insurer’s claim, and the bank’s security all hang on that answer, and each party is offered a different number by somebody with an interest in it. Our tally clerks count at the hatches and again at the gates. Our draft surveyors read the vessel before cargo moves and once it stops, and the difference between those two readings is the weight, calculation attached. The out-turn survey then sets the manifest against what actually landed. One result, held by every interest.
Damaged cargo at Tema is a race against disappearing evidence: wet cargo keeps spreading, torn bags bleed at every re-handling, and by next week nobody remembers whose crane did what. Our cargo damage surveys establish cause, nature, and extent while the facts are still on the ground, order segregation that stops the loss growing, and issue letters of protest while they still carry weight. On the claims side, our P&I cargo surveys count the quantum instead of accepting it, and our claims handlers assemble the file to the standard adjusters expect and pursue it to recovery. One interest per matter, findings to the instructing party first.
The import trade through the Port of Tema runs on containers in national-gateway volumes, rice, frozen fish, wheat, clinker, and vehicles for Ghana and the Burkina Faso corridor. Each of those trades loses value in its own way between ship and gate, and the loss settles on whoever kept no record. We attend end to end: condition at the rail, tally at each custody change, draft surveys where weight decides the invoice, sampling where quality is contested, and protests issued in time to matter, so receiver, insurer, and bank work from a single figure.
Cocoa, aluminium, cashew, timber, and shea load at Tema, most of it against documents that pay on analysis and weight. Cargo that loads without examination carries its defects to a buyer who will document them thoroughly, and the bill returns as deductions, rejections, and claims. Our export superintendence records condition before loading, tallies and weighs as it goes aboard, draws sealed splits where the contract settles on analysis, and issues certificates in letter-of-credit wording, so the Tema price survives arrival.
The commodities below carry most of the value that crosses the Port of Tema, and each one loses money in its own way. These are the surveys instructed most, by the parties with the most to lose.
Rice is bought by the bag and lost by the bag: torn at the sling, wetted in the stack, short at the door. Our tally clerks count at every point where the number can change, and the count is the claim.
Wheat and grain settle between the silo, the ship, and the contract. Draft surveys before and after the operation, silo reconciliation, and sampling for moisture and infestation give every interest one figure.
A container’s story is its seal, its stow, and its condition at each exchange. Seal examination and interchange condition at the terminal decide which leg of the through carriage pays.
Ghana’s cocoa is priced on moisture, bean count, and defects by buyers who never see the quay. Sampling, sealed splits, and certificates at loading defend the season’s price.
All of it runs at Tema under a single instruction, and it all ends the same way: a report to the standard adjusters, underwriters, and tribunals accept.
Importers & receivers. By the time cargo lands at Tema the money is already spent. The independent count and condition record decide whether the receiver absorbs the loss or recovers it.
Exporters & shippers. The letter of credit pays on documents and the buyer’s laboratory is far away. Weight, sampling, and certificates fixed at loading are the exporter’s defense after sailing.
Cargo insurers & underwriters. Claimants arrive with the loss pre-counted. An independent survey resets cause, custody, and quantum to what the evidence supports before anything is paid.
P&I clubs & correspondents. Impartial attendance at Tema, one appointment per matter, first findings within a day, and quantum counted rather than conceded.
Charterers & operators. Pre-laycan holds inspections, independent drafts, and a stoppage-and-weather record turn laytime and shortage disputes into arithmetic.
Shipping lines & carriers. A door-delivery claim began on some leg of the carriage. Rail condition and seal examination place it there, and off the carrier who ran a clean leg.
Freight forwarders & clearing agents. The forwarder answers for hands it never controlled. Our attendance at Tema gives you a record for every one of them.
Banks & trade finance. Financed cargo the bank never sees becomes real security through independent tally, quality certificates, and warehouse checks.
Traders, lawyers & adjusters. Recovery follows the file. First-days documentation of cause, custody, and quantum, in adjuster-ready form, is what converts a right into money.
Named surveyor, written scope. You know who attends, when, and precisely what they will do before anything begins, on paper.
Fee first, then work. The fee goes in writing before the attendance, so you decide with the numbers in front of you.
One interest per matter. If the other side in your dispute approaches us, we tell you and decline. Independence is what you are buying.
Nothing moves without your word. Work begins on your written confirmation, findings come to you first, in confidence, and we answer around the clock.
“Sealed splits at loading answered the buyer’s laboratory line for line. The price held.”Cocoa exporter, Tema
“Tally at the hatch and the gate gave one figure. The shortage claim closed on it.”Rice importer, Tema
“Holds passed before the laycan. No rejection, no lost days.”Chartering manager, Tema
Send the vessel or consignment details and we arrange attendance in Tema through our own local surveyors at the port, with every attendance confirmed in writing before work begins. The surveyor, the timing, and the basis of attendance come back to you in writing before work begins.
Scope sets the fee: what the cargo is, how many attendances it needs, what must be measured or sampled. Both come back in writing before work begins, so you decide on numbers, not estimates.
We do: condition, on/off hire, hull and machinery, P&I, and bunker surveys are handled with our marine surveyors in Tema.
Our cargo surveyors in Tema attend containers, rice, frozen fish, wheat, clinker & cement, fuel, vehicles, project cargo, and every other cargo that crosses the quay, inbound and outbound, on a single instruction.
It records quantity and condition at an agreed point: the count or draft survey for how much, examination, photographs, and sampling for what state, and a report carrying the full evidence, issued first to the instructing party.
Cargo surveys at Tema Port, Ghana are carried out by Observater Surveys and Services Group: independent, resident at the port, and answering around the clock. One email to the desk brings back the surveyor’s name and scope in writing, and attendance follows day or night.
It depends on the scope — the operation, the hours, and what must be attended. What never varies is the sequence: the fee is quoted in writing before attendance, agreed before boarding, and there are no additions invented afterwards. One email describing the vessel and the operation brings the figure back.
What the instruction needs: outturn and tally against the manifest, condition recorded as found with photographs, slack and damaged units counted rather than estimated, sampling where quality matters, and a report the claim or the trade can stand on.
Evidence is cheap while it exists, and priceless once it is gone
Send the vessel, the consignment, or the problem: the who, when, and on-what-basis comes back in writing before anything begins.
Get a Surveyor Moving Email the InstructionThe same group, the same report standard, along the same trade routes: Bunker surveyors in Tema · Cargo surveyors in Takoradi · Cargo surveyors in Lomé · Cargo surveyors in Abidjan · Cargo surveyors in Lagos.
International 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: Marine Surveyors In Tema · Ghana · Nigeria.
From the Observater Desk
Every call at Tema moves two commodities: the cargo on the quay and the fuel in the tanks. The bunker desk closes the second one with independent soundings, sealed samples, and a certified figure — on the same instruction line as the matter that brought you here.
Bunker surveyors in TemaInstruct the desk
When precision matters, Observater Surveys Group is your Partner of Choice
© 2026 Observater Surveys and Services Group. All rights reserved.