Kebs halts offloading of fertiliser at Mombasa port on quality fears

The Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) halted the offloading of fertiliser in the week to May 20, citing quality concerns.

Kebs is expected to subject a consignment of 19,137 tonnes of bulk fertiliser received at Mombasa port to tests as officials suspect it may be of poor quality.

During the week, steel and clinker imports registered 82,185 tonnes, accounting for 31 per cent of the total non-containerised cargo handled at the port.

Also handled out of the total 264,679 tonnes along the general cargo berths were 47,624 tonnes of bulk illuminite for export.

Other import commodities were 11,900 tonnes of bulk coal, 41,497 tonnes of bulk wheat, 3,626 units of motor vehicles, 8,284 tonnes of assorted cargo and 34,166 tonnes in containers translating to 4,691 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

At a weekly meeting, port stakeholders were told that conventional cargo section received 15 vessels and loaded a total of 57,746 tonnes of exports.

Cargo deliveries from the section were by road that accounted for 193,599 tonnes and 50,835 tonnes by conveyor. According to the operators, it was a busy week characterised by high berth occupancy.

Adding glamour to the conventional cargo berth quay line was the presence of a French naval supply vessel that was at the port for four days.

The 160-metre long vessel serves as a command centre of the combined force — a multi-national task force responsible for providing maritime security and counter terrorism based in Bahrain.

The last port call by a naval vessel was by another French warship Ladroit last April.

During the week, the container operations section recorded 4,197 TEUs or 30.6 per cent of the total container yard population as ready for collection by consignees.

The yard population registered 13,702 down from 13,736 TEUs registered in the previous week. There were 2,717 TEUs awaiting pick-up order, 3,362 TEUs full exports (nominated/un-nominated) and 428 TEUs for transhipment.

Others were 1,805 TEUs, empties and 1,192 TEUs at the customs warehouse. A total of 14 container vessels were worked in the week discharging 13,999 TEUs, full and empty as well as loading for export another 13,702 TEUs.

Deliveries of containerised cargo from the port by road accounted for 11,846 TEUs up from 9,778 TEUs reported in the previous week. The rail transport network handled 381 TEUs compared to 319 the previous week.

The container operations section also reported handling 3,191 TEUs of local imports and another 5,385 TEUs for transit. Uganda-bound cargo accounted for 3,756 TEUs or 69.7 per cent of the total transit traffic up from 2,969 TEUs handled the previous week.

South Sudan-bound cargo registered 632 TEUs, followed by Rwanda with 348 TEUs and Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania with 263 TEUs and 250 TEUs respectively.

Conventional cargo section is expected in the next two weeks to handle 223,654 tonnes with imports accounting for 221,404 tonnes while exports will be 2,250 tonnes.

The container terminal operations section is expected to receive 15 vessels to discharge 6,753 TEUs and load another 6,400 TEUs.

Meanwhile, the ongoing construction of phase one of the second container terminal is 85 per cent complete.

According to the Japan Port Consultancy project manager Takeshi Miyagawa, the project progress was ahead of schedule. He says the project is scheduled for completion in March next year and would bring an additional capacity of 550,000 TEUs.

He made the remarks when he received Kenya Ports Authority chairman Marsden Madoka at the new terminal.

Mr Miyagawa together with KPA general manager infrastructure development Abdullahi Samatar led the chairman on a tour of the site.