Kenya Ports Authority has acquired 12 rubber-tyred gantries costing KSH 1.9bn for the country’s Port of Mombasa as it seeks to boost efficiency, Managing Director Gichiri Ndua said.

“As the regional economies continue to grow, our duty is to beef up operational strength in tandem with increasing demand for imports and exports,” Ndua said in a speech today.

“The 12 gantries acquired from Cargotec of Finland have a safe working load of 45 tons, six containers wide plus one truck lane and can stack five containers high. They are fitted with special electronic gadgets that give them capability to track containers on stack,” he said. “This means that operators can key-in the physical position of the container during stacking thus linking with our ICT systems to give real time and online information.”

“Our capacity is now enhanced to 30% because we will be able to move cargo faster,” Ndua told Deputy President William Ruto who commissioned the quipment.

Mombasa’s total cargo traffic increased 11.5% from 22.3017 million in 2013 to 24.87 million in 2014 and container traffic rose 13.2 % from 894,000 TEUs in 2013 to 1,012,002 TEUs in 2014, according to Kenya Ports Authority. Dwell time reduced to 3.9 days in 2014 from 4.9 days in 2013 and average vessel turnaround remained at 3.5 days in 2014.

“The delivery of the 12 gantries has now increased the complement in this category to 34 for the entire port,” Ndua said. “Our obligation not only involves timely purchase of appropriate and efficient cargo and ship handling equipment but also computerizing essential port services including stepping up security to improve delivery and revenue collection,” he said.

Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto said Kenya is moving towards making Mombasa a world class port by enhancing efficiency and ensuring faster evacuation of cargo by rail.

“This is a fabulous achievement, we will do more make this a world class port,” Ruto said.

“Equipment manufacturer, Cargotec-owned Kalmar said the installed gantries will save the port 50% in fuel costs,” Kalmar Managing Director for Middle East and Africa Rob Van Klingeren said

Source: Hellenic Shipping News.com

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