KPA projects February performance to surpass two year record

The Kenya Port Authority says the Mombasa port is experiencing peak moments with recorded full container berth occupancy and minimum vessel delays.

This, according to the authority has also witnessed steady growth in import volumes for both general and containerised cargo.

This follows the cessation of the Covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns from the major import countries that led to congestion in the world's  leading ports.

The authority has projected this month's performance to surpass what it has reported over a similar period in past two years

“We are projecting to handle over 115,000 TEUs against 108,000 TEUs handled in 2020,” KPA acting MD Rashid Salim said.

For non-containerised cargo, KPA is projecting to handle over 1 million tons against 800,000 tons handled in 2020 representing an increase of 20 per cent.

For the last one week, the Port had an average population of 17,000 TEUs against its holding capacity of 41,000 TEUs. The enhanced efficiency has seen cargo dwell time reduce from an average of 5.6 days in December 2020 to 4.6 days in January 2021.

Rashid attributes the improved performance to measures currently being undertaken by KPA, working alongside shipping lines and other Port stakeholders, to streamline operations.

“As at February 24, we had only one container vessel that had arrived the previous day waiting to berth. She was scheduled to dock at berth No.16 later in the evening. This timing was within the 24 hours target stipulated in KPA’s Customer Service Charter,” he said.

Recently, KPA took over the loading and offloading SGR operations at Port Reitz Yard and reorganised all railtainer operational processes with logistic partners hence increasing end to end efficiency in the rail evacuation.

In January the port registered the highest SGR performance with 241 trains clearing 24,256 TEUs, the highest in a single month since its inception.

According to the acting MD, evacuation of cargo by rail has significantly contributed to the speedy import container deliveries with a daily average of 1000 TEUs ferried by 10-11 trains from the Port of Mombasa to the Inland Container Depot Nairobi.

He added that this is a remarkable improvement in performance as compared to the period running from mid-December 2020 to early January 2021 when the port experienced vessel build up leading to cargo backlog.

Meanwhile the number of vessels that have called at the Port of Mombasa between the period January 1st to February 25,2021 is 252 compared to 248 vessels in a similar period last year.