• In January, the port registered the highest SGR performance, with 241 trains clearing 24,256 20-foot equivalent units, the highest in a single month since its inception.
• KPA acting managing director Rashid Salim attributed the improved performance to measures currently being undertaken by KPA, working alongside shipping lines and other port stakeholders, to streamline operations.
The Kenya Ports Authority has confirmed that congestion at the Mombasa port has been cleared.
In December and January, KPA recorded up to 13 vessels waiting in the deep sea, which led to congestion at the container yards. By the end of last week, only one vessel was waiting in the deep sea areas.
To clear off the congestion, KPA took over the loading and offloading standard gauge railway operations at Port Reitz Yard and reorganised all 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 twenty-foot equivalent units, the highest in a single month since its inception.
KPA and the Kenya Railways Corporation are also doing an average of between 10 and 11 freight trains to Nairobi daily. One freight train transports about 108 containers daily.
KRC also introduced double-stack trains, which transport over 150 containers at once.
For the last one week, the Port of Mombasa had an average population of 17,000 twenty-foot equivalent units against its holding capacity of 41,000.
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.
KPA acting managing director Rashid Salim attributed the improved performance to measures currently being undertaken by KPA, working alongside shipping lines and other port stakeholders, to streamline operations.
“As of Wednesday, February 24, we had only one container vessel that had arrived the previous day waiting to berth. The vessel 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.
Salim said the daily average of 1,000 containers ferried by 10-11 trains from the Port of Mombasa to the Inland Container Depot Nairobi is a remarkable improvement in performance.
“Comparing this to the period running from mid-December 2020 to early January 2021, when the port experienced vessel build-up leading to cargo backlog, the current performance is remarkable,” he said.
The number of vessels that have called at the Port of Mombasa between the period of January 1 to February 25, is 252 compared to 248 vessels in a similar period last year.
This improvement in efficiency has not gone unnoticed by port users. Shippers Council of Eastern Africa, in a letter dated February 24, said waiters at the port have reduced from 13 in December to only three.
“Containers waiting for railage for the last three days has averaged 50 twenty-foot equivalent units and these are good signs of recovery in productivity,” read a part of the letter.
They said the takeover of the Kenya Railways loading yard by KPA, introduction of double stacking of rail containers and conversion of high sided wagons to carry containers are some of the initiatives that will reverse the situation.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris