Kenya and Tanzania have made major strides over the past one year in improving operations in their key ports, a new shipping survey shows.

According to the survey, the two ports have significantly cut cargo dwell time, reducing the cost of doing business in the region.

The improvements at the Dar es Salaam and Mombasa ports have boosted efficiency, though they are still way below the internationally acceptable standards of a maximum of three days dwell time.

The Shippers Council of Eastern Africa (SCEA)), in a new survey published last week, said Kenya’s strategic importance as the regional transport corridor for sea trade is coming under severe threat from Tanzania because of the fast-tracked reforms at the port of Dar es Salaam.

The East Africa Logistics Survey 2012, shows the port of Mombasa will be overtaken as a preferred regional transport corridor by the port of Dar es Salaam in just a year, if the measures to improve efficiency are not implemented immediately.

Dar es Salaam has increased the pace of its port reforms, pulling in business from the port of Mombasa in 2012, which saw its business increase by 12.9 per cent compared with Mombasa port’s growth of 11.1 per cent in the same period.

The survey indicates that preference for Mombasa port is waning fast, with Rwanda and Burundi likely to completely switch to the port of Dar es Salaam.

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The report comes days after Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Transport and Infrastructure Michael Kamau gave an ultimatum to the Kenya Ports Authority (which manages the Mombasa port) to streamline operations or face the sack.

Mr Kamau said the lack of a central management command and powerful cartels have affected the performance of the port.

“The port used to operate without any central command. The Customs people used to come at their own time, the Kenya Bureau of Standards inspectors also came at their own time,” said Mr Kamau when he met the Senate Committee on Energy and Transport.

SCEA chief executive officer Gilbert Langat said Tanzania authorities have fast tracked port reforms with timelines for achieving targets being met.

“This growth is a clear testimony that we have lost some business to Dar es Salaam port. They are implementing drastic measures made last year. They will be way ahead of us by next year,” Mr Langat said.

Tanzania was last year rated by a World Bank sponsored global study — Logistic Performance Index Survey (LPI) — as the best route for transit goods in the region.

Kenya dropped 23 places to position 122 while Tanzania rose seven places to position 95 in 2012, to become the top ranked nation in the region.

The LPI ranked countries based on six components that trace how easily and quickly goods are cleared at the port, to how easily they are transported, by road or rail, within the country or in transit.

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The 2012 annual average growth rate of container traffic through these ports was 12.9 per cent for Dar es Salaam, which handled 543,000 twenty-foot-equivalent-units and 11.1 per cent for Mombasa, which handled 903,463.