Empty containers received at the Port of Mombasa by both road and rail transport recorded 9,649 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs), registering a growth of 2126 TEUs or 28.29 percent in the week ended 31st October 2018, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) said in its weekly Port Operations.
As a result, Port stakeholders in their weekly Friday meeting commended the Authority for the enhanced efficiency in the evacuation of the empty containers and also the recent record performance of 1450 moves within an eight-hour shift Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) container vessel MSC Maxine.
''Stakeholders called for the same efficiency to be extended to the delivery of empty containers from the second container terminal,'' the weekly statement said.
While the high level efficiency was experienced in the handling of empty containers, evacuation of full containers by both modes of transport recorded 2362 TEUs down from 2459 TEUS registering a decline of 97 TEUs.
Empty containers loaded onto vessels registered 7,551 TEUs compared to 3729 TEUs empty containers.
''During the week under review, 11 container ships docked at the two container terminals to record a ship average working time of 2.50 days as the import container dwell time registered 4.49 days,'' the statement added.
The vessels discharged a total of 13,355 TEUs, full and empty and loaded another 11,280 TEUs.
A spot check at the container yards revealed that there were 5,089 TEUs bound for the local destinations compared to another 4,424 TEUs transit bound. Whereas transit bund container traffic grew by 19 TEUs from the previous week, local bound traffic declined by 378 TEUs.
''Uganda maintained her leading position in the transit market accounting for 3,387 TEUs followed at a distant second by Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that recorded 354 TEUs,'' KPA further reported.
Other transit countries included Tanzania that accounted for 317 TEUs, Rwanda with 186 TEUS, South Sudan with 137 TEUs and Somalia with 28 TEUs.
Elsewhere in the Port, 13 general cargo ships docked at the conventional cargo terminal to discharge 92,496 metric tonnes of cargo and load another 678 metric tonnes. The Cargo terminal handled a total of 93,174 metric tonnes at average of 13,311 metric tonnes per day.
Bulk Clinker registered 37,486 metric tonnes to emerge the leading import commodity in the week, followed by steel which recorded 12,624 metric tonnes.
Other commodities handled in fairly large volumes included bulk fertilizer which recorded 10,861 metric tonnes, bulk wheat that registered 8,446 metric tonnes. Motorcar carriers that docked in the week discharged 1335 units of motorcars and 85 trucks.
Cargo delivery by road transport recorded 84,050 metric tonnes while conveyor belt delivered 8446 metric tonnes.
Operations at the Inland Container Depot (ICDN) went on as usual, with total import containers received registering 4,020 TEUs. There were a total of 4,209 TEUs delivered out from the depot which recorded a total container population of 10,367 TEUs.
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Export containers received registered 252 TEUs compared to deliveries that recorded 325 TEUs.
Others were empty containers received that registered 1120 TEUs as 1787 TEUs were delivered out.
Meanwhile forecast for the next two weeks shows that eight container carriers are expected to discharge 5,083 TEUs at the container terminals and load another 5,707 TEUs.
The Conventional cargo is expected to receive 25 general cargo ships to discharge 380360 metric tonnes and load another 64,226 metric tonnes.
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