New measures ease cargo congestion at port

By Patrick Beja

Congestion at the Port of Mombasa has eased despite increased cargo arrivals.

When Coast Provincial Commissioner Ernest Munyi led senior government officials on a tour of the facility last week, he confirmed that the use of private container freight stations (CFSs) and the 24-hour port operations had helped ease congestion.

Cargo handled at the port has been rising, but the container population has declined owing to the measures effected to clear a huge backlog.

"We have adopted the container freight stations (CFSs) concept, where most cargo exits the port as soon as it lands to the private-run CFSs," explained Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) Managing Director James Mulewa.

Container handling capacity has been a major challenge at the port, since the current container terminal, initially designed to handle 250,000 twenty foot equivalent units (Teus) handles over 600,000 teus.

According to KPA, container population at the port has been reduced from 14,300 teus ground slots last year to 6,000 containers. "It allows us to plan our operations and to compete with other ports in the world in terms of moves per hour," Mulewa explained.

Rail capacity

Apart from increased cargo handled at the port over the years, a decline in capacity by rail to move goods has been blamed for the poor off-take of cargo.

Rail moves only five per cent of cargo as opposed to the initial 30 per cent leaving, 95 per cent of the port-bound cargo to be moved by roads.

Long-term measures to address cargo congestion at the port include construction of the second container terminal with a capacity to handle 1.2 million teus and the rehabilitation of the rail track to carry more goods.

The Sh16 billion second container terminal is expected to be ready by 2013.

"It is no wonder our roads wear out very fast. We pray that rail improves to handle at least 30 per cent of cargo," said Mulewa. Last year, the port handled 16.4 million tonnes compared to 15.9 million tonnes handled in 2007.

Port officials estimate that the volume of cargo has grown by one million tones despite the global economic recession.

Between January and June this year, the port handled 9.173 million tonnes compared to 8.04 million tonnes handled in the same period last year.

There is optimism the port will handle more cargo this year compared to the previous year, despite many ports around the world registering reduced cargo.