NAIROBI Aug 19 (Reuters) - Shipping activity at Kenya's port of Mombasa, East Africa's biggest, rose by 11 percent in the first half of 2015 as vessel wait times fell, the national port authority said on Wednesday. Gichiri Ndua, Kenya Ports Authority managing director, said the performance reflected progress in the integration of east African countries to ease the flow of trade. he port, a major trade gateway to east Africa, handles imports such as fuel for Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kenya, which faces increasing competition from other countries like Tanzania and Djibouti in the bid to serve land-locked and rapidly-growing neighbours, said increasing port efficiency is central to its infrastructure plan. Kenya has begun construction of a Chinese-funded rail line, which will connect Mombasa to the Ugandan capital Kampala, speeding the flow of goods and taking pressure off its congested road network. In the first half of this year, the port handled 13.21 million tonnes of goods, 1.3 million tonnes more than in the same period a year ago, Ndua said. Last year, it handled 24.9 million tonnes of cargo - the highest volume in the port's history and an 11.5 percent increase from 2013, he said. Between 2013 and 2014, the so-called dwell time of cargo ships dropped by a day, to 3.9 days. Average turnaround time remained the same - 3.5 days - from 2013 to 2014, despite the increased activity at the port, he said. Inefficiency at the...

Selfish interests and failure to adopt policies agreed upon by the east African Community member states are some of the road blocks to the economic empowerment of the region. It has emerged that though member states have good investment policies aimed at boosting their economies, such policies are yet to be adopted at the regional level. The East African Legislative Assembly wants a regional investment policy to allow the region push in the same direction on investment issues. Source: NTV UG

The three-day visit of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to his counterpart in Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni, has led the two countries to agree on a number of trade and oil deals that have sparked controversy in Kenya. One of the most significant agreements involves the ambitious construction of a 1500km-long pipeline which could turn East Africa into a significant oil exporting region. The pipeline’s path had been disputed for a year, but it has now been agreed to include Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, and potentially Ethiopia, and will be part of the bigger Lamu Port Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor. As a condition to the path’s agreement, Kenya has had to take on the project’s financing and securities guarantees, due to the uncertainty of the project’s results and concerns over Al-Shabaab’s terrorist activities in northern Kenya. “The pipeline route was not Uganda’s preferred route. The agreed route is longer and untested against the southern route that would have followed an existing pipeline route,” says Jubril Adedayo Kareem, energy research analyst at Ecobank. “The waxy nature of tested crude from Kenya means the pipeline will have to be heated above 40 degrees Celsius. This specific requirement further complicates the project as a heated pipeline of such length has never been attempted in the world, which means the Kenya section of the pipeline will be longer, much more complicated and more expensive. Uganda is only trying to protect itself by requesting for such guarantees,” he explains. It remains unclear which companies will become...

President Uhuru Kenyatta will Thursday morning hold a meeting with top executives of Japanese multinationals who are in Nairobi seeking a slice of investment opportunities, a month after a similar visit by their American rivals led by US leader Barack Obama. Chief executives representing 84 conglomerates, including Toyota Tsusho and Mitsubishi, are in the country to fight for a share of emerging opportunities in both the public and private sectors that have caught the attention of the World’s top two economies, US and China. Japan, the third largest economy in the World, was keen on grabbing part of the ongoing and planned mega infrastructure projects including the Sh3 trillion-worth Lamu Port South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport project. “We convinced them to come here in our previous visit to Tokyo, and they are to look for the right kind of investments for their respective companies,” Amb Amina Mohamed, the foreign affairs Cabinet Secretary said. Wednesday’s daylong meeting held at the Serena Hotel brought together business executives from Japan and their local counterparts. Japan is the source of top three vehicle makes in Kenya and the balance of trade is heavily against Kenya which exports comparatively low value commodities consisting tea, coffee and cut flowers. In Thursday’s meeting at State House, the Japanese are expected to reveal commitments that they could be making in both investments and business. China has specifically made major inroads in the upcoming infrastructure projects including the Sh300 billion Standard Gauge Railway linking Mombasa and Nairobi, with the expectation that...

The Kenyan sugar sector could be headed for a complete shutdown in February next year after the State said there would be no additional caps on duty-free importation. Trade Permanent Secretary Karanja Kibicho said the country could not be granted any further safeguards on sugar importation from the 19-member Common Markets for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa). That proposition could push the current debate on the sugar import deal with Uganda to the back burner. “All members of Comesa who have the capacity to have a surplus of any product, in this case sugar, are free to export to this country if there is a deficit,” Mr Kibicho said at a media briefing Wednesday. Major relief An estimated six million Kenyans depend on the sugar supply chain, with a majority being cane farmers, who will inadvertently be the most exposed in this latest development. On the flip side, however, allowing unlimited imports could provide a major relief for consumers through cheaper sugar. Kenya had exhausted all allowable protectionist periods under international trade guidelines, Kibicho said, and Comesa could not even consider another request. He was responding to questions raised by the Opposition on an alleged sugar importation deal said to have been signed last week during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s State visit to Uganda. Foreign Affairs and Trade Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has twice denied that such a deal was entered into, even though some top Government officials have said some form of agreement was signed. Amid the continued debate on...

WOMEN entrepreneurs in the region will use the second East Africa Community Women in Business conference that opens today in Nairobi, to explore opportunities offered by the Single Customs Territory, the EAC secretariat has said According to the Arusha based office, the conference on the role of women in socio-economic development and business will also explore openings in the common market. The two-day conference themed "Advancing and expanding the participation of business women in intra-EAC trade", targets 350 women entrepreneurs and exhibitors from the region. “Among other outputs, the second EAC conference is expected to identify sources of affordable financing for women in business and recommend a way forward,” said EAC. It will also be used to strengthen and expand the network of women in business. Source: The Star

THE Kenya-Uganda sugar talks focussed on setting up a regional board to curb perennial shortage of the commodity in East Africa, Foreign Affairs Cabinet secretary Amina Mohammed said yesterday. She maintained Kenya did not sign any deal on importation of sugar and promised the government will today publish full details of the trade talks in Uganda. “The proposed East Africa Sugar Board will ensure that all sugar that is produced in the region can be sold within the region,” she said on the sidelines of the Japan investment forum in Nairobi. Contradictions abound over the Kenya-Uganda trade talks during President Uhuru Kenyatta's official visit to the country sparking a war of words political between the government and the opposition leaders who are against the 'sugar deal'. According to the CS, the existing sugar safeguards expire in February 2016 opening trade for sugar exports among member states. However the sugar industry will enjoy protection from the enactment of the Finance Bill 2015 that will increase import duty from $200 per tonne to $460 per tonne, specific tax and a 100 per cent ad valorem tax. The Kenya National Chambers of Commerce and Industry chairman Kiprono Kittony said the political heat is bad for the sugar industry adding the prolonged sugar protectionism has caused inefficiencies and a sluggish improvement of the sector. “We need to depoliticise the sugar industry because politics will not improve the sector. While protection during the budget 2015/2016 safeguards since 2002 seem not to yield faster results towards...

Kenya’s exports to Tanzania dropped by 30 per cent in the first half of the year. Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that the country sold goods worth Sh12.2 billion to Tanzania in the six months to June, down from Sh17.7 billion in a similar period last year. The loss is partly linked to industrialisation in Tanzania and the Dar and Kampala currencies making worse losses against the dollar compared to the Kenya shilling. “Tanzania has been investing in industries and it was obvious that our goods would not be going there in perpetuity,” said Joseph Kosure, a consultant in the external trade section at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Kenyan companies have also been setting up plants in the neighbouring nation thereby reducing the flow of goods across the border. Some of the companies which have set up shop in Tanzania include listed cement maker ARM. Data from the Export Promotion Council shows that the balance of trade between the two countries has been deteriorating due to an increase of Kenya’s imports from Tanzania. Last year Kenya imported goods worth Sh18.3 billion from Tanzania, an increase from the previous year’s Sh11.6 billion, thereby narrowing the positive balance of trade to Sh24.3 billion from Sh28.8 billion. Some of the goods that Kenya sells to Tanzania include medicines, soap, polish, sweets and snacks (sugar confectionery) and construction materials. Mr Kosure said that Nakumatt’s opening of operations in Tanzania could also have affected the volume of goods imported...

Infrastructure imports and mineral exports have boosted activity at the Port of Mombasa in the first half of the year. The Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) has posted 11.2 per cent increase in performance. The port handled a total of 13.21 million tonnes compared with 11.88 million tonnes handled in a similar period in 2014. Container traffic increased by 14.2 per cent to 529,000 this half of the year from 464,000 in the same period in 2014. Kenya Ports Authority Managing Director Gichiri Ndua said imports for the regional integration, improved economic performances, project cargoes and infrastructural developments, especially the standard gauge railway, helped KPA's performance record an uptick. TIOMIN EXPORT “We have seen increases in exports of about 8.5 per cent occasioned by exportation of Tiomin as a mineral which explains to a great extent the increase in entire volume,” he said. Mr Ndua said KPA projects that traffic at the port will hit 26.5 million tonnes by the end of the year with the port handling over 1.25 million containers. Due to an expanded cargo handling capacity, the port continued to gain prominence, serving as a bay for offloading cargo from bigger ships to smaller vessels destined for Pemba, Tanga and Dar es Salaam. CARGO OFFLOADED Total cargo offloaded increased to 284,000 tonnes compared to 160,000 tonnes handled in the corresponding period in 2014. Mr Ndua said improvements in the Port of Dar es Salaam and Djibouti does not really worry KPA as they operate on different corridors. He...

Two recent bilateral trade deals, one unveiled early this week between Uganda and Kenya and the other, negotiated late last month between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been lauded by experts as a step in the right direction towards deepening intra-regional trade. Kenya will once again start accepting sugar exports from Uganda, a deal signed by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his counterpart, Yoweri Museveni, during the former’s three-day state visit to Kampala. Source: Eatradehub.org