Mombasa Port’s 2016 traffic up by 2.4 per cent

Congestion of containers at the port of Mombasa in 2008. Traders are question the drop in cargo import at the port of Mombasa, December 08, 2016. [PHOTO BY GIDEON MAUNDU/STANDARD].

Container traffic through Mombasa, Kenya’s biggest port, increased by 2.4 per cent in 2016 after the opening of a new section of the second container terminal, the management has said.

The biggest port in East Africa and the region’s trade gateway, Mombasa handles imports of fuel and consumer goods and exports of tea and coffee from landlocked neighbours such as Uganda and South Sudan and its traffic flows serve as a barometer of economic activity in the region.

Catherine Mturi-Wairi, the managing director of Kenya Ports Authority, said the facility handled 27.36 million tonnes of cargo between January and December last year, up from 26.73 million tonnes during the same period in 2015.

Mturi-Wairi said in a statement that more than six million tonnes were freight moving to and from Uganda, which accounted for 81.9 per cent of all transit traffic.

 The second container terminal, which is 900 metres long with three docking berths, was opened in April 2016, and provides an additional cargo-handling capacity of 550,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a year.