March 19, 2024

Mombasa Port Report Impressive Business Performance Despite COVID-19

By The COAST Reporter

Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com

The Port of Mombasa has recorded an impressive business Performance including vessels and container traffics this month despite adverse effects of COVID-19 Pandemic in the global economy.

Kenya Ports Authority said it is hopeful the port will attract more business this year as some of the key infrastructure development projects are also projected to be complete by the end of the year.

Kipevu Oil Terminal; a new terminal that will increase the oil handling capacity at the port is set to be ready by the end of the year.

According to a KPA transshipment report, transshipment traffic at the Port is also set to bounce back strongly this year due to an improved performance in the fourth quarter of 2020 and steady growth outlook for the month of January, 2021.

KPA also recorded a sharp increase in cargo vessels calling the port during this period, with ten container vessels expected to dock.

Comparatively, transshipment traffic by PIL (K) shipping Line vessels alone registered 8,106 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in the Month of December 2020 up from 7,729 TEUs in November.

There are early indications of significant growth in the transshipment segment in the current quarter, according to the report.

Container operations report for the week ending, 20th January 2021 also indicated a ship average working time of 3.19 days while the import container dwell time recorded 4.69 days.

The container terminals have been busy having increased markedly the cargo volumes handled, according to Mr. Patrick Makau the Ag. head of container operations. 

“We are looking forward to posting improved performance this year now that business normalcy is slowly returning,” Mr Makau added.

A total of 13,057 TEUs (full and empty) were expected to be discharged while another 13,069 TEUs were to be loaded for export.

ROAD TRANSPORT

Container deliveries by road transport registered 6,324 TEUs compared to 5,024 TEUs by the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).

Import population breakdown revealed 5,457 TEUs transit bound compared to 4,066 TEUs for local destinations. Uganda bound traffic recorded 4,758 TEUs accounting for 87.2 percent. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) bound cargo came in second with 239 TEUs followed by South Sudan with 219 TEUs.

Other transit destinations were Rwanda which accounted for 126 TEUs, Tanzania with 103 TEUs with Somalia and Burundi accounting for 9 TEUs and 3 TEUs respectively.

However, impressive performance trend recorded in 2019 was curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic which affected businesses across the globe last year.

Transshipment segment posted a total of 211,604 TEU’s compared to 121, 577 TEU’s in 2018 representing a growth of 70 percent.  The performance later slumped to 175, 827 TEU’s in 2020.

Meanwhile, normalcy in container deliveries especially transit containers is expected to resume after a lull occasioned by internet shut down in Uganda, the leading port transit customer.

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