•Phase II Second Container Terminal which commenced in September 2018 is currently at 56.3 per cent completion.
•The Sh32 billion project is being developed on a reclaimed 50-acre sea area and once complete, it will add 450,000 TEUs capacity.
Image: CHARLES MGHENYI
Work at the Sh32billion Mombasa port phase II second container terminal should be ready in 14 months, Kenya Ports authority has said.
The project being undertaken by Japan's Toyo Construction Company commenced in September 2018 and is currently at 56.3 per cent complete with the due fate set for November 2021.
It is an extension to the first phase (Phase one of the Second Container Terminal), built on a Sh26 billion loan from Japan, and commissioned in April 2016.
The Japanese firm was also behind the first phase, which involved reclaiming of a sea area of about 50 acres, a project that created 550,000 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit (TEUs) capacity with two new berths.
Phase II is being developed on another reclaimed 50-acre sea area and once complete, it will add 450,000 TEUs capacity at the facility, bringing the total capacity at the new terminal to one million TEUs.
“Construction of the second Container terminal was informed by the need to expand capacity ahead of demand to cope with the exponential growth in containerised traffic,” KPA said in an official communication yesterday.
By 2023 the Port of Mombasa is expected to handle approximately 1.732 million TEUs up from the current 1.42 million TEUs.
It is estimated the port will handle 47 million tonnes in the next ten years, from the current 30 million tonnes and eventually 111 million tonnes by 2047.
“Over the years, the Port of Mombasa has consistently recorded significant growth of cargos thereby necessitating capacity expansion in the short to medium term to avoid congestion,”KPA head of corporate affairs Bernard Osero told the Star.
The developments at the country’s main seaport comes amid a shift in the global shipping industry, which is moving towards the use of large vessels to enjoy economies of scale.
Completion of the Mombasa Port Development Program, designed to accommodate larger vessels, will give the port a competitive edge over her neighbouring ports, mainly the Port of Dar es Salaam and Djibouti.
Mombasa Port remains a key facility for the country’s international trade, and serves landlocked countries of Uganda, South Sudan, Eastern DRC, Burundi and Rwanda.
The Inland Container Deport-Nairobi and the Naivasha dry port remain key in handling cargo destined for both Kenya and neighbouring states. The Standard Gauge Railway serves the two.
The country is also developing a 32-berth seaport in Lamu, part of the Sh2.5 trillion Lamu Port South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) Corridor project.
Kisumu Port has also been refurbished at a cost of Sh700 million, and is expected to support revival of trade in Lake Victoria, mainly in the Kenya-Tanzania-Uganda markets.
To improve the country’s ports, rail and logistics services, the government has formed the Kenya Transport and Logistics Network (KTLN), which consolidates operations of KPA, Kenya Pipeline and the Kenya Railways Corporation, coordinated by the Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC).
According to the National Treasury CS Ukur Yatani, an integrated and seamless approach of operational integration will improve efficiency and position Kenya as Africa’s leading logistics hub
“The country will reap the benefits of created synergies through increased efficiency, lower cost of doing business and hence competitiveness of our products and services, and generally higher returns on the infrastructural investment,” Yatani said during the signing of a working framework by the entities.