The Port of Mombasa recorded 29, 801,152 tons in cargo handling performance during the period July-May 2018/19 registering a volume increase of 1,760,166 tons or 6.3 percent compared to corresponding period in 2017/18.
Confirming the figures, Kenya Ports Authority Managing Director Daniel Manduku said the positive performance was mainly driven by containerized cargo, recording a positive variance of 2,057,838 tons or 18.9 percent.
Liquid bulk also improved by 149,120 tons or 2.0 percent. This was mainly attributed to increased handling of refined petroleum products by 158, 960 tons being 2.2 percent.
A 10.7 percent growth was realized in exports mainly due to increased handling of Titanium products by 34, 300 tons or 6.8 percent.
During the period under review, cumulative container traffic posted a significant volume increase of 146,559 Twenty Feet Equivalent Units (TEUs) or 13.1 percent recording 1,261,327 TEUs compared with 1,114,768 TEUs handled in the corresponding period in 2017/18.
Import containerised traffic also posted an increase growing by 4.9 percent to record 557,097 TEUs up from 531,204 TEUs in a similar period in 2017/18. Export traffic registered an increase of 13.9 percent growing to register 557,238TEUs from 489,164 TEUs in a corresponding period in 2017/18.
Total transit cargo recorded 3,327,377 tons against 3,022,533 tons registered in the same period in 2017/18, representing volume increase of 304,844 tons or 10.1 percent.
The positive performance was mainly driven by increased handling cargo for Uganda, D.R.C and South Sudan by 224,847 tons, 61,431 tons and 28, 410 tons respectively. In addition, Rwanda also posted a growth of 17,788 tons or 27.0% during the period under review.
Dr Manduku noted that productivity indicators for crane moves slightly improved to record 18.7 moves per hour compared with 18.5 moves per hour registered in the same period 2017/18.
Similarly, during the same period, the average port days for all vessels also improved from 3.9 days recorded in 2017/18 to 3.0 days registered in the same period in 2018/19.
This was due to enhanced efficiency in the general cargo vessels which recorded 4.1 days against 4.1 days recorded in the same period in 2017/18. Bulk vessels also improved by 2.1 days.
The MD attributed the improved Port performance to the enhanced efficiency levels in cargo off take by the Standard Gauge Rail (SGR), expansion of the Inland Container Depot, Nairobi (ICDN), investment in infrastructure mainly container yards and modern equipment.
Read: Types of collateral that Kenyans trade for loans
The Port of Mombasa remains among the top 120 world container ports and among the top six in Africa. The Port is connected to over 80 ports globally and served by over 40 shipping lines.
