MOMBASA (Xinhua) — Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) on Sunday announced a 9.3 per cent growth in cargo shipment at the Mombasa port over the past 11 months.

KPA Managing Director Gichiri Ndua said total cargo throughput handled between January-November stands at 20.4 million tonnes up from 18.6 million tonnes handled in 2013.

Ndue told a stakeholders meeting in Mombasa that the imports grew by 6.5 per cent, posting 17.1 million tonnes compared to 16 million tonnes in 2013.

He said exports also increased by 13.4 percent, recording 2.8 million tonnes up from 2.5 million tonnes in 2013.

“Container traffic realized a growth rate of 12.3 percent reaching 823,313 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit), compared to 732,856 TEUs registered during the same period in 2013.”

“I wish to note that this growth is above the global average growth rate of 8 percent per annum,” Ndua said.

He said the port also recorded a robust performance of trans- shipment traffic of 492,000 tonnes against 130, 000 tonnes posted in 2013, reflecting a 278 per cent impressive growth.

On transit traffic, KPA recorded a 5.3 per cent growth between January and October, registering 5.9 million tonnes up from 5.6 million tons handled in 2013.

Uganda remains the biggest transit market with an increased transit cargo share of 4.5 million tonnes up from 4.1 million tonnes last year, a 9.1 per cent growth.

According to KPA, the dwell time has reduced to 3.7 days this year from 5.8 days in 2013 while truck transit from the port of Mombasa to Malaba has decreased to from 7 days to 4 days.

Ndua further announced the construction of modern and bigger oil terminal to replace the current Kipevu oil terminal with the harbour. The facility will handle four vessels at a time and will have pipelines to link with the KPC storage tanks.

Transport Cabinet secretary Micheal Kamau said the signing of the port community charter has played a major role in boosting port performance.

“The government is closely monitoring the performance of the charter that seeks to commit the parties towards significantly improved efficiency and competiveness of the northern corridor,” Kamau said.

Source: Coast week.com

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