KPA acquires three new ship-to-shore cranes for Lamu Port

The Kenya Ports Authority has acquired three new ship-to-shore cranes for the Lamu Port, expected to be delivered to the port on Sunday.

KPA Managing Director Captain William Ruto said that the equipment is expected to increase transhipment business in Lamu port.

“With the new ship-to-shore cranes arriving in Lamu, we expect to see a paradigm shift in terms of the handling of transhipment cargo at the port,” said Ruto.

Ruto was speaking at the KPA headquarters in Mombasa after handing over food donations worth Sh1.5 million to Muslim communities in Mombasa, Kwale and Lamu.

The KPA MD said that Mombasa port has seen a growth in transhipment business owing to inefficiency experienced in neighbouring ports and the security threats along the Red Sea.

"Among the troops, we are handling now, nearly 30 to 40 percent are transshipments arising from inefficiency from other ports and also arising in the Red Sea. What is happening in the Red Sea may be bad but it is also a blessing to the port of Mombasa,” Ruto said.

The Lamu port, he said, is also expected to soon receive a shipment of bulk cargo.

The port, he said, continues to attract interest from neighbouring countries, with Ethiopia and South Sudan already showing commitment to using the port of Lamu to import their cargo.

“We recently had a meeting with the Ethiopian government, which showed keen interest in using the Lamu port because of the emerging Red Sea issues. Our neighbours South Sudan have also expressed interest,” he said.

The MD along with KPA board of management chairman Benjamin Tayari, inspected the LAPSSET Corridor route from Lamu to Moyale in early March to see construction progress and the status of the road.

During the survey exercise, the two were briefed by the Lamu-Garissa - Isiolo Road (536 km) project management team on the progress, challenges, and expected completion period.

“The LAPSSET Corridor remains a crucial infrastructure project that will provide the requisite connectivity and seamless transport to the port of Lamu for the transit markets of Ethiopia and South Sudan,” Ruto said.

“Three weeks ago, we did a road survey with my chairman from Mombasa to Moyale, and I want to report that the government has done great in terms of security. There is a small section of road between Isiolo and Garissa, but the contractor is already on sight to tarmac the road,” he said.

During the tour, the two also visited the Moyale One Stop Border Post (OSPB) and interacted with truck drivers transporting raw materials for the apparel industry from the port of Mombasa to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, using the Isiolo-Moyale road.

The MD also recently met the South Sudan Revenue Authority’s Commissioner of Customs, Adout Ajang Adout for an engagement on KPA initiatives and opportunities for transit markets like the Naivasha Inland Container Depot and the upcoming Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zones project in Mombasa.

South Sudan, he said, is one of the major transit markets for the Port of Mombasa, with cargo volumes through Mombasa steadily rising over the years.

On expansion projects at the port, the MD said that KPA will soon break ground on the Dongo Kundu project port component.

On March 22, the Principal Secretary of the State Department for Investment Promotion, Abubakar Hassan, met stakeholders drawn from the various implementing state agencies and development partners for a progress report tracking the implementation progress of the Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zones project.

The PS said that the process for compensating the affected persons for the project is set to commence with three private investors who had expressed interest and have been cleared and licensed.

“On the construction of the first multipurpose berth to serve the SEZ KPA, we have already awarded the tender,” he said.

The Dongo Kundu SEZ is being developed on 3000-acre land and will comprise a free port, industrial parks, free trade zones, logistics and warehousing, energy project areas, tourism, and MICE, among other developments.

The national government, he said, is keen to transform Kenya into an industrialized and globally competitive economy in all sectors.

The development of special economic zones across the country, he said, is one of the projects that will enhance Kenya’s position as an investment destination.

This, he said, will happen through the provision of infrastructure, the simplification of business regulations, value-chain integration and clustering, the promotion of expanded market access for goods and services produced, and the reduction of the cost of doing business.

In terms of port performance in March, Captain Ruto said that Mombasa port handled a record over 180,000 Teus.

“This has never been achieved before. The throughput we are handling in this port now is nearing around 500k Teus.

“In the next four to five months, we would have handled what some of our competitors are handling,” he said.

Last week, KPA launched the Annual Review and Bulletin of Statistics, which provides a detailed report on the performance of the various port facilities.

The Port of Mombasa recorded a positive performance in all major sectors, with total cargo throughput registering an annual growth of 6.2 per cent from 33.88 million tons handled in 2022 to 35.98 million tons in 2023.

Container traffic recorded 1.62 million TEUs in the year under review, compared with 1.45 million TEUs handled in 2022, representing a growth of 11.9 per cent.

Containerized cargo accounted for 50.4 per cent of the port's total cargo throughput.

The Port of Lamu handled a total cargo throughput of 37,576 MT in 2023, compared to 6,539 MT realized in 2022.

Buoyed by the steady growth in the regional economies, Kisumu Port performance improved significantly by 119 per cent to record 127,745 MT in 2023 against 58,290 MT in 2022.

Similarly, there was an impressive performance in transit traffic, with a significant growth of 11.5 per cent to a record 11.41 million tons in 2023 up from 10.23 million tons realized in 2022.

South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo performed exceptionally well, with throughput increasing by 50 per cent and 56.1 percent, respectively, compared to the same period in 2022.