Containers at the Port of Mombasa .Photo Elkana Jacob
Containers traffic at the Port of Mombasa dropped by 0.6 per cent in the first half of the year, registering 527,523 twenty-foot equivalent units.
This is a drop from 530,608 TEUs in a similar period last year, Kenya Ports Authority announced yesterday, blaming the drop on China’s economic slowdowncombined with a dip in commodity prices, which have hit the global markets.
“I wish to note that this is below the expectations of the global average growth rate of four per cent per annum,” managing director Catherine Mturi-Wairi told port stakeholders during the annual business luncheon in Nairobi yesterday.
The facility was hit by a slow transshipment traffic which dropped to 260,444 tonnes in the period under review, compared to 287,952 tonnes last year.
Mturi said KPA is addressing the decline and a multi-agency taskforce has been formed to look into ways of revamping transshipment traffic.
“I am reliably informed that the taskforce has developed an action plan on the activities to be undertaken to recapture this market niche. We expect to see a positive trend by the close of this year,” she said.
The MD, however, noted that East Africa’s leading port witnessed an “overall positive performance” in the first half of the year compared to last year.
Total cargo throughput registered a 1.4 per cent growth having handled 13.406 million tonnes, up from 13.218 million tonnes in 2015.
The ship turnaround time at the port also improved from 3.7 days between January and June last year to three days this year, while container dwell – the time cargo remains in a terminal before being evacuated – has also improved from 5.3 days to 4.3 days.
The net vessel performance at the Mombasa port now stands at 29.7 moves compared to 22.3 moves in 2015, owing to increased cargo handling capacity and expansion of the Mombasa facility.
Last year, the port handled a total 1.08 million TEUs up from 1.01 TEU’s in 2014, the first time in history it first handled a million container.
Total throughput in 2015 was 26.732 million tonnes up from 24.875 million tonnes in 2014.
Transport CS James Macharia said the government remains committed in expansion of the port.
This includes the ongoing construction of the second container terminal whose Sh30 billion phase one was commissioned by President Uhuru Kenyatta on September 3, increasing the ports capacity to 1.6 million TEUs from 800 TEUs.
“The port of Mombasa is critical for doing business in Kenya and the region,” Macharia said.
Source: The Star

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