The Port of Mombasa has posted a double-digit growth in volume of cargo, pointing to improving efficiency amidst renewed growth in imports of machinery.
Official data shows eastern Africa’s largest and busiest seaport handled about 29.94 million metric tonnes of goods in nine months through last September, a growth of12.64 percent over 26.58 million tonnes in a similar period a year earlier.
The growth in the review period was the fastest in post-Covid era despite suggestions some regional traders were considering re-routing their cargo to the central corridor.
The Northern Corridor stretches about 1,700km from the Port of Mombasa through Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern DRC, while central corridor is estimated at 1,300km beginning at the Port of Dar es Salaam into Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Eastern DRC.
Businesses have in the past complained of numerous road tolls, multiple border charges, heavy traffic and road conditions as major cost drivers along the Northern Corridor, prompting some to consider the Central Corridor.
“Shippers choose efficiency over most other things and that is why the majority of cargo meant for Rwanda and copper exports from Zambia are handled at the Mombasa port, despite the two countries being closer to Tanzania than Kenya,” Capt William Ruto, the managing director at Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), said in an interview late last year.
“Additionally, we are counting on the ports of Kisumu and Lamu to further boost the Mombasa port and pull in more countries to use our state-of-the-art facilities.”
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data shows wheat accounted for the largest volumes of commodities shipped through the port at nearly 3.02 million tonnes, followed by iron & steel (1.68 million tonnes), chemicals and insecticides (1.62 million tonnes) and fertiliser (0.88 million tonnes).
President William Ruto has in the past ordered state agencies at the port to collaborate to ensure the seaport runs “effectively, efficiently and is commercially sound”.
“The productivity of this port is directly linked to the state of our economy, improving efficiency will help us create jobs, boost export volumes and stimulate economic growth,” Dr Ruto told a past forum of shippers, transporters, exporters and importers.
The KPA has announced plans for fresh round of dredging, targeted at expanding the depth and width of the approach channel.
The access channel at the Mombasa port was in 2012 dredged to a depth of 15 metres and a width of 300 metres. Before the dredging works, the maximum allowable length of a vessel entering the port was restricted to 259m.
Currently, the Mombasa port can handle ships with a maximum length of 300 metres.
