ment a~d facilities, lack of spare parts and the inability to manufacture rarts ana con:ponents locally, and poor manapement and operations resulting partly from the fact that staff are in­ ace quat ely t raine c an e in experience d. i-Ii th peer route ali en­ menta and consequent low averafe speeds, eouipment is often held up longer than necessary, and shortaees result a.t one or both ends of operations. 188. Africa's sea-borne trace increased by only 1.87 per cent from 560.5 million tonnes in 1980 (including 392.5 million for crude oil and petroleum products) to 571 million tonnes in 1981 incl udine 400 million t annes for petroleum an c petroleum products). Durinr the same period Africa's merchant fleet in- creased from 7,167,451 cwt (incluoinp 3,605,590 dwt fer tankers) to 7,180,613 dwt (includn[. 3,393,934 dwt for tankers), a sliEht increase of 0.18 per cent. · 189. Data on individual port traffic were not uniformly avail­ able for most African ports. The available evidence indicates that there were no sirnificant chan.res in the quantity of fOOds loacec and unloadec at major ports in 1981 compared to 1980. 86 E/ECA./CM. 9/5 Table IV.E.1 Railway traffic in some African countries (Monthly average in millions of ton-kilometres (T-k) anc millions of passanger kilometres (P-k)) -----------------------------------------------------------------Unit 1978 1979 1980 1981 -----------------------------------------------------------------Algeria T-k 168 207 a/ 206 a/ 206 a/ P-k 1 21 156 a/ 112 a/ 172 a/ Botswana T-k 87 124- 142 -95 ~/ P-k Congo T-k 41 39 40 a/ 41 a/ P-k 25 23 24 a.; 25 a.; Ivory C cast T-k 44 50 -60 - P-k 106 101 96 Madagascar T-k 25 25 23 17 P-k 17 19 20 13 Malawi T-k 17 19 20 14 P-k 6 7 7 7 Morocco T-k 315 321 324 328 P-k 73 67 77 80 Tunisia T-k 114 123 143 144 
**Analysis**
The text appears to be discussing the economic and infrastructure development in Africa, specifically focusing on the transportation sector, including ports, railways, and merchant fleets. It also mentions the challenges faced by African countries in terms of spare parts, manufacturing, and management. These themes suggest that the text is more closely related to economic development and transportation.

**Category**
Transport and communication, Economic development