By Allan Olingo

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The first berth of East Africa’s newest port, Lamu, is set to open in a few weeks’ time. The Kenya Ports Authority Managing Director Daniel Manduku spoke with Allan Olingo about the plans for the facility and why it matters for the region.

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With the unveiling of the Lamu port, Kenya expects to play in the multi-billion-dollar business of global transshipment. What is the business plan for the facility?

Lamu Port has a natural draft of over 18 meters deep that can accommodate huge vessels. We intend to make it a transshipment hub for the East African region, and the larger horn of Africa.

Our current Kilindini Port cannot handle a Suezmax, Neo-Panamax or Chinamax class vessel, because of its shallow depths of 12 to 14 metres. Hence cargo coming in from the East, especially China which is our biggest import source, docks in Singapore and is then offloaded into smaller vessels en-route to Mombasa. Those coming from Europe dock at Oman’s Salala Port, before they are shipped to the region.

Lamu port will remove this barrier, which is costly and time-wasting for shippers, allowing them to dock and easily access smaller ships to regional ports all the way to Durban. With this advantage, we will position Lamu port as both the in-bound and out-bound transshipment hub for the region, replacing both Salalah and Singapore, and helping us take advantage of the market.

Why transshipments and not the transit cargo business to countries like Ethiopia and South Sudan?

We have to take advantage of the port’s natural draft that allows it to dock these huge vessels. We have also seen the transshipment business in Mombasa grow 1,236 per cent in the past year, despite the port’s technical limitations in hosting these Neo-Panamax vessels.

As at the end of September, our transshipment volumes for Mombasa jumped to 1.6 million tonnes, up from 650,000 tonnes over a similar period last year.

This shows there is a demand, and Lamu is strategically placed for this. For example, at its opening in November, we expect one ship to dock in with close to 20,000 twenty foot equivalent units which will be moved to smaller ports in the region like Dar es Salaam, Mombasa, Beira and even Durban. This works for everyone along the Indian Ocean.

Won’t this port take away business form the Mombasa port?

On the contrary we expect it to boost Mombasa Port’s strategic position, and increase its business. Being a transshipment hub, we expect cargo volumes to improve, mostly because of the lower costs associated with shipping to the same region.

This means that those who would like to increase their cargo volumes can use our Lamu Port with ease. We now expect to see more drayage runs between Lamu and Mombasa port, which will create more traffic for the Mombasa Port.

President Uhuru Kenyatta during Mashujaa Day on October 20 said the Lamu Port will be used to export oil. How will this impact on its competitiveness?

The Cabinet recently approved to have berth 3 of the Lamu Port strictly dedicated to crude oil. This means that we can now woo countries like South Sudan and Uganda, which have been seeking alternate lines to export their oil.

With the completion of the crude oil pipeline in 2024, Lamu Port’s business will have been expanded beyond the containerised cargo and transshipment to become a crude oil shipment hub.

Does your port masterplan capture the expected changing fortunes of the region’s port business dynamics now that competitors are upgrading their ports?

Our regional competitors including Djibouti and Dar es salam are upgrading their ports but we also have a Ports Masterplan that covers 2018 to 2047 covering the port of Mombasa as well as Nairobi’s ICD [inland container depot], Lamu, Shimoni and the inland Lakeside ports including Kisumu that we shall be launching soon.

In the past decade, Mombasa port has experienced steady growth in container traffic and cargo throughput, and our next 10 years forecast puts this at 47 million tonnes, from the current 30 million tonnes and eventually 111 million tonnes by 2047. This therefore underscores capacity expansion as one of the most crucial variables in port efficiency and cargo movement.

This masterplan should help us identify the development strategy for the major ports, inland container depots which should eventually become catalysts for regional trade growth.

Traffic at the Nairobi ICD has been growing substantially since the launch of the standard gauge railway freight services two years ago. Given that this is a new facility, what modern interventions are you planning to ensure its efficiency?

Already we are using smart gates to reduce delays and enable smooth flow of cargo in and out of the port. At the Nairobi ICD, we also introduced the submission of pick up orders per container as opposed to earlier requirements of pick up order per bill of lading.

Together, with the enhanced online documentation, we have eliminated the manual shipping order requirement for export shipment, making it easier for importers.

We are also implementing a new terminal operating system for planning, operations, control and monitoring of terminals. This will eventually replace the current Kilindini Waterfront Automated Terminal Operations (Kwatos) we launched in 2008.