The Port of Mombasa last week received the largest vessel, in terms of capacity, as the facility recorded the highest performance in container handling.
Container carrier MV Ever Unity is the largest vessel in terms of capacity to call at the Port of Mombasa this year.
The ship owned by Ever Green company with an overall length of 285 meters, arrived at the Port of Mombasa on Tuesday at 1400 hours on her maiden call carrying 8,892 TEUs in and out.
It was scheduled to sail out of the port yesterday.
The vessel had a total of 3,825 TEUs (full discharge), 1,614 TEUs (full loading) and 3453 TEUs (empties loading).
General manager operations Sudi Mwasinago on Friday presented a certificate of first call to the ship’s master Captain Wei-yu Chu at berth number 18.
Mwasinago said:"When new vessels continue calling at the Port of Mombasa, it increases confidence in handling large vessels."
He noted that the vessel’s performance of 4,238 moves in eight shifts of eight hours is the highest so far in Mombasa.
"The performance was as a result of good coordination, teamwork and supervision,"Mwasinago said.
By Friday afternoon, the vessel had a balance of 1,172 moves to complete the loading before sailing out of the Port.
“We also want to sincerely appreciate Ever green. We don’t take it for granted when you choose Mombasa as your preferred port,” Mwasinago said.
The port has continued to register improved performance despite the unprecedented disruption of global maritime trade by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the first quarter of 2021, the port handled 9.54 million tonnes of cargo compared to 8.62 million tonnes in a similar period last year. This is a 10.7 per cent growth.
According to Kenya Ports Authority acting managing director Rashid Salim, between January and March, container traffic grew by 14.3 per cent.
They received 389,515 Total Equivalent Units (TEUs) compared to 340,812 TEUs handled last year, which is an increase of 48,703 TEUs.
For March only, the port of Mombasa handled 133,904 TEUs, which is an increase of 31,261 TEUs or 30.4 percent compared to last year’s 102,643 TEUs.
Total imports during the quarter recorded 162,504 TEUs up from 151,998 TEUs in the corresponding period January-March 2020.
Equally, exports registered an upsurge by 6.8 per cent from 146,049 TEUs in 2020 to 156,007 TEUs during a similar period in 2021.
In transshipment business, container traffic grew by 68.4 per cent between January and March.
The port handled 69,658 TEUs against 41,363 TEUs during the corresponding period in 2020, which was a growth of 28,295 TEUs.
