Djibouti port is the main point of entry for goods from Asia, and also serves landlocked Ethiopia.
It cost $590 million (Sh61 billion) venture has capacity to accommodate 100,000 deadweight tonnage vessels.
Apart from serving their own domestic markets, the Tanzanian and Kenyan ports will also be competing for business from landlocked countries of East Africa.
Djibouti has formally inaugurated its 690-hectare Doraleh Multipurpose Port, heightening competition with Kenya for regional maritime business.
Djibouti port is the main point of entry for goods from Asia, and also serves landlocked Ethiopia which recently opened the Chinese funded 752 kilometre-Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway.
Kenya had in 2012 signed a joint pact with Ethiopia and South Sudan to build a corridor linking their economies to the 32-berth port being built at Lamu.
Djibouti’s Doraleh port opened on May 24 and features a container terminal with yard capacity of 200,000 TEUs, a break bulk terminal with six million tonnes per year capacity, and a bulk terminal capable of handling two million tonnes per year, among other facilities.
It cost $590 million (Sh61 billion) venture has capacity to accommodate 100,000 deadweight tonnage vessels.
“With this new world class infrastructure, Djibouti confirms its position as a major trading hub for the continent. We are proud to show the world our capacity to deliver major infrastructure projects — some of the most technologically advanced on the continent,” Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority ( DPFZA) chairman Aboubaker Omar Hadi said in a statement.
Mombasa port and Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam port are traditional competitors but the Kenyan government plans a huge new port at Lamu, while Tanzania is developing Bagamoyo port.
Tanzanian authorities expect Bagamoyo port to handle 20 million containers a year, 25 times more than Dar es Salaam port. Kenya’s planned Lamu port is expected to be just as big.
Apart from serving their own domestic markets, the Tanzanian and Kenyan ports will also be competing for business from landlocked countries of East Africa.
They will handle containers desined Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Ethiopia, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and parts of Zambia.
The new Djibouti port is part of four mega ports “aimed at providing world-class logistics platforms for shipping... The facilities will vastly improve the efficiency and ease of doing business in the Horn of Africa,” DPFZA said.
The project was launched in 2015 and was financed jointly by DPFZA and China Merchant Holding.
The port was equipped by Chinese firm ZPMC and ships have already started calling at the facility, the port authority said.
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