Mombasa port cargo rebounds amid Dar es Salaam threat
Friday February 16 2024
Gantry cranes on board Mv Zhen Hua 35 Ship sails through the Kilindini Channel to the port of Mombasa, Kenya on August 7, 2023.PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NMG
The volume of cargo handled through the Mombasa port recovered last year to grow 6.23 percent on the back of the State’s renewed push to improve efficiency amid looming threat from Dar es Salaam.
East Africa’s largest and busiest seaport handled about 35.84 million tonnes of goods compared with 33.74 million tonnes the year before, the data collated by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows.
The modest growth marked a turnaround from a marginal 2.93 percent drop in 2022, the first in five years when some regional traders re-routed their cargo to the central corridor for fear of disruptions due to Kenya’s presidential polls.
Read: Dar reaps as Mombasa cargo volumes dip
The Northern Corridor stretches about 1,700km from the Mombasa port through Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), while the Central Corridor is estimated at 1,300km beginning at the Dar es Salaam port into Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and eastern DRC.
Businesses have also in the past complained of numerous road tolls, multiple border charges, heavy traffic, and road conditions as major cost drivers along the Northern Corridor, prompting some to consider the Central Corridor.
The KNBS data, sourced from the Kenya Ports Authority, indicate the imported cargo posted the biggest rebound after growing 6.63 percent to 28.34 million tonnes from a 4.04 percent fall in 2022.
Regional countries are net importers, hence the volume of imports processed at the port outstrips exports by far. This has resulted in most containers returning to source markets empty.
The volume of export throughout at the port slowed down, growing 3.71 percent to nearly 4.95 million tonnes compared with 5.85 percent to 4.77 million tonnes the year before.
Read: Mombasa, Dar cargo volumes keep rising with rivalry
The recovery came on the back of a high-level meeting presided over by President William Ruto last July, which resolved to implement far-reaching reforms aimed at enhancing efficiency and making Mombasa globally competitive.
The meeting, attended by authorities from Kenya and Uganda, shippers, transporters, exporters, and importers, sought to discuss measures that will ensure the seaport runs “effectively, efficiently and is commercially sound”.
“The productivity of this port is directly linked to the state of our economy, improving efficiency will help us create jobs, boost export volumes, and stimulate economic growth,” Dr Ruto told stakeholders in Mombasa at the time.
The gathering resolved, among others, to adopt global best practices in Transshipment operations and procedures with sights set on attracting more Transshipment business — a key driver of revenue globally.
As part of reforms, the KPA announced plans for a fresh round of dredging, targeted at expanding the depth and width of the approach channel.
The announcement followed similar dredging plans by Tanzania, which will be aimed at dredging at the Dar es Salaam port. The dredging will, on completion, see the gateway at the Dar es Salaam port have a ship entrance with a minimum width of 170 metres and depths ranging from 15 to 16 metres below chart datum— a level so low that the tide will not frequently fall below it.
Read: Mombasa Port cargo shipments rise amid Dar insufficiency
The access channel at the Mombasa port was in 2012 dredged to a depth of 15 metres and a width of 300 metres. Before the dredging works, the maximum allowable length of a vessel entering the port was restricted to 259m. Currently, the Mombasa port can handle ships with a maximum length of 300m.
“Mainline container ships with beams 45 metres can operate at draughts of up to 14.4 metres,” KPA said of the dredging plans.
For comparison, the approaches of container ports in the region, such as Dar es Salaam after completion of the capital dredging work …have a minimum width of 170 metres and depths ranging from 15 to 16m below CD.”
“Given this context, it becomes imperative to increase both the width and depth of the approach channel to Mombasa, allowing it to accommodate very large container ships efficiently.”