Kenya Ports Authority’s Mombasa Port and Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam Port are not business rivals, the KPA management said on Tuesday.
The two ports complement each other in handling business for the east and central African region despite the fact that Mombasa is much larger than its Dar neighbour, a forum was told.
“Kenya alone cannot handle the millions of tonnes of cargo destined for Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan and Burundi annually. We need Tanzania to complement us. At the same time, Tanzania cannot alone handle all the cargo destined for east and central Africa region, so they need Kenya,” said Hajj Masemo, a senior corporate affairs official at KPA.
Mombasa Port is ranked fifth in Africa after Egypt’s Port Said, Durban in South Africa, Tanger Med in Morocco, and Alexandria in Egypt.
It achieved its one million container handling capacity two years ago, and has 21 berths compared to Dar e Salaam’s 13, while the Dar port made its 600,000-container handling capacity last year.
To remain responsive to shipping and trade trends, KPA said it will continue with elaborate port modernisation programmes to position Mombasa as a world class port of choice.
Managing director Catherine Mturi-Wairi said they have embarked on several expansion plans to modernize the port, including expansion of yards and berths, and an improved ICT process.
“We have modernized cargo handling equipment, installed a state of the art integrated security system to control pilferage, dredged the port channel and widened its turning basin. Consequently, the port can now attract and accommodate larger vessels.”
The operationalization of the first phase of the second container terminal at the port has increased the annual container handling capacity.
“We are set for the construction of the second phase starting early next year to provide another additional capacity of 550,000 TEUs,” she said.
The port has also embarked on building a new modern and bigger oil terminal to replace the current Kipevu Oil Terminal.
The new facility will handle four vessels at a time and will have underground pipelines to link with the KPC storage tanks.
They are working closely with Trademark East Africa in the ongoing construction of a modern cruise terminal at Berth Number One and Two aimed at complementing the tourism sector in the region.
“We focus on raising and sustaining our performance to world class standards where the port waits for ships and not vice-versa while ship turn-around-time reduces to less than 48 hours,” she said.