Mombasa port dredging pays off as biggest ship ever arrives

Mombasa port Thursday received the biggest vessel to ever call at the facility, signalling positive results following the deepening of the harbour to 15 metres and widening of the turning basin to 300 metres.

MV Clemens Schulte has a capacity of 5,466TEUs and will discharge 1,710 containers while 3,505 export containers will be loaded.

With a length of 255 metres and 37.5 metres wide, the vessel — operated by Maersk shipping line — is twice the length of an international football pitch.

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) managing director Gichiri Ndua said the arrival of the vessel was an indication that shipping lines were exploiting capacity upgrade at the port and that there was growing confidence in the efficiency of the facility.

He said that when another large ship, MV Maersk Cairo, called at the port in February last year, they made 834 moves (the number of times a crane picks a container from the vessel and places it on a waiting truck).

“This marks an important milestone in our agenda towards becoming a world class sea port of choice. It also signifies the benefits accrued from the port’s completed capacity expansion projects,” he said.

Some of the completed projects include dredging of the channel and construction of the 240-metre Berth 19, which increased the length of the port’s quay to 840 metres.

This means that the port is able to accommodate three vessels of MV Clemens Schulte’s size.

Shipping lines benefit from economies of scale when they operate larger vessels because they are able to bring in big volumes, reducing the cost shipping cargo.

KPA is developing the second container terminal at a cost of over Sh26 billion, with the first phase of the project expected to be complete in March 2016.