* Key cocoa terminal to become regional hub
* Abidjan to serve landlocked West African countries
By Loucoumane Coulibaly
ABIDJAN, May 20 (Reuters) - Abidjan's port operator will spend 30 billion CFA francs ($62.3 million) between now and 2012 to transform the Ivorian harbour into a regional transport hub, its manager said on Wednesday.
The port of Abidjan is the main export terminal in the world's biggest cocoa grower and aims to grow from an import-export point to a gateway for landlocked countries in West Africa.
"What we need to develop now is the port's capacity to handle volume for Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali," Lionel Labarre, chief of the management firm which operates the port, known by its local abbreviation SETV, told Reuters in an interview.
"I think that will grow strongly in the next five years, as will transshipments for ports in the region," Labarre said.
"We expect investment of 30 billion CFA francs up to 2012."
SETV is part of French industrial giant Bollore, the biggest transport and logistics operator in Africa.
"What interests our major clients, who are shipping lines such as Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and Delmas, is not just taking in containers for import and handling containers for export, but to make Abidjan a transfer point and become a principal port hub for the sub-region," Labarre said.
Ivory Coast, a former French colony, was for years the strongest economy in West Africa, but many investors fled after a 2002-03 civil war divided the country.
Much-delayed elections, a key step towards reunification, are scheduled for November this year, and Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo is under considerable international pressure to ensure polls go ahead.
Volume at the port has been steadily rising in recent years, reaching 600,000 containers last year, up from 530,000 in 2007 and 430,000 in 2004, when Bollore began running the port.
This is forecast to rise to 800,000-900,000 containers between 2010 and 2012.
The management firm has already spent 34 billion CFA francs on the port since 2004, Labarre said, an investment which has increased its throughput capacity to 80 containers per hour, up from around 20 per hour in 2004. (Writing by Daniel Magnowski; Editing by Anthony Barker)