Port Watch: Mombasa port expects 22 cargo ships in next two weeks

MOMBASA, KENYA: The Port of Mombasa is expected to handle 22 cargo ships in the next two weeks.

A weekly dispatch from the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) states that the vessels will dock at the conventional cargo terminal to discharge 402, 533 metric tonnes and load 10,400 metric tonnes.

The container terminals are expected to dock 17 vessels that will be discharging 13,045 Twenty Foot Equivalent (Teus) and load 14,179 Teus.

In the meantime, container off-take from the Port of Mombasa to the Inland Container Depot, Nairobi by the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) has registered tremendous growth recording 5,121 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in the week ended September 19th 2018.

''The SGR freight service currently doing an average of eight trains per day accounted for 44.67 percent of the total 11,462 TEUs lifted by both rail and road transport,'' KPA said in the dispatch.

A total of 6,341 TEUs were evacuated by the road transport which registered a decline of 3,281 TEUs compared to the previous week.

''Empty containers received by road registered 12,586 TEUs up from 10,366 TEUs recorded in the previous week while only 511 TEUs (empty) were delivered out of the Port by the same mode of transport,'' KPA said.

During the week under review 10 container vessels docked at the Container Terminals registering a ship average working time of 1.77 days as the import container Dwell time recorded 4.11 days.   

The ships discharged 15,487 TEUs (full and empty) and loaded another 15,008 TEUs.

KPA stated further that an on the spot check for the Imports population breakdown at the Terminals revealed that 4,723 TEUs were destined to the local market while another 4,373 were transit bound.

Uganda maintained her leading position in the transit market accounting for 3510 TEUs an equivalent of 38.58 percent followed by Tanzania which accounted for 338 TEUs.