Mombasa port has registered a brisk business in the first six months of this year, with throughput growing by 11.5 per cent over a comparative period last year.
Increased economic activities and ships turning back to Mombasa from Dar es Salaam port contributed to an increase of about 800,000 tonnes increase in the six months to June 30, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) officials say.
Throughput totaled 7.73 million tonnes during the period compared to 6.93 million 5,674 tonnes last year. This reflected an increase of 799,985 tons or 11.5 per cent.
KPA Corporate Communications officer, Mr Harry Abok, said imports dominated the total traffic after realising an increase of 640,170 tonnes or 11.4 per cent in the period under review. Abok said import traffic grew from 5.63 million tonnes in 2006 to 6.3 million tonnes this year.
Similarly, total exports in the period recorded a marked increase of 119,639 tonnes or 10 per cent, up from 1.15 million tonnes registered in 2006 to 1.270 million tonnes this year.
"Owing to increased marketing and diversion of a number of vessels from the nearby port of Dar es Salaam to Mombasa occasioned by congestion there, transhipment traffic has achieved a remarkable growth," Abok said.
During the period under review, transhipment traffic posted 193,313 tonnes of cargo compared with 153,136 tonnes registered in the corresponding period of last year. This has given an increase of 40,177 tonnes or 26.2 per cent.
Uganda remained the most dominant transit source market, accounting for 77.3 per cent of total transit traffic. This was followed by Rwanda and DRC with 6.0 per cent each, while Tanzania took 5.2 per cent as Somalia recorded 0.4 per cent. Uganda also posted the highest growth of 22.9 per cent followed by DRC at 14.7 per cent. Burundi recorded negative 21.4 per cent.
KPA said that in order of market segmentation, the domestic traffic share was dominant at 69.9 per cent followed by transit traffic at 27.6 per cent and transhipment traffic at 2.5 per cent.
Last year, the share of domestic traffic in the period under review was 70.9 per cent transit; traffic was 26.9 per cent and transhipment traffic 2.2 per cent.
"This shows that although domestic is dominant, growth in the other segments is being targeted," Abok said.
Meanwhile, containers handled at the port during the period under review totaled 280,341 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) against a total of 232,987 TEUs dealt during the same period last year. This has given a significant increase of 20.3 per cent.
KPA attributed the increase to the number of full import containers and total transhipment, which shot up by as much as 29.9 per cent and 37.4 per cent respectively.
Abok said KPA expects the port throughput will hit yet another upswing this year. Earlier KPA projections indicated a target of 15.4 million tonnes this year. This will represent nearly a million tonne growth over the 14.4 million tonnes handled last year.
In terms of container handling, the total container traffic for 2007 is expected to reach 532,168 TEUs. This will be 52,813 TEUs above last year’s performance of 479,355 TEUs.
Increased economic activities and ships turning back to Mombasa from Dar es Salaam port contributed to an increase of about 800,000 tonnes increase in the six months to June 30, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) officials say.
Throughput totaled 7.73 million tonnes during the period compared to 6.93 million 5,674 tonnes last year. This reflected an increase of 799,985 tons or 11.5 per cent.
KPA Corporate Communications officer, Mr Harry Abok, said imports dominated the total traffic after realising an increase of 640,170 tonnes or 11.4 per cent in the period under review. Abok said import traffic grew from 5.63 million tonnes in 2006 to 6.3 million tonnes this year.
Similarly, total exports in the period recorded a marked increase of 119,639 tonnes or 10 per cent, up from 1.15 million tonnes registered in 2006 to 1.270 million tonnes this year.
"Owing to increased marketing and diversion of a number of vessels from the nearby port of Dar es Salaam to Mombasa occasioned by congestion there, transhipment traffic has achieved a remarkable growth," Abok said.
During the period under review, transhipment traffic posted 193,313 tonnes of cargo compared with 153,136 tonnes registered in the corresponding period of last year. This has given an increase of 40,177 tonnes or 26.2 per cent.
Uganda remained the most dominant transit source market, accounting for 77.3 per cent of total transit traffic. This was followed by Rwanda and DRC with 6.0 per cent each, while Tanzania took 5.2 per cent as Somalia recorded 0.4 per cent. Uganda also posted the highest growth of 22.9 per cent followed by DRC at 14.7 per cent. Burundi recorded negative 21.4 per cent.
KPA said that in order of market segmentation, the domestic traffic share was dominant at 69.9 per cent followed by transit traffic at 27.6 per cent and transhipment traffic at 2.5 per cent.
Last year, the share of domestic traffic in the period under review was 70.9 per cent transit; traffic was 26.9 per cent and transhipment traffic 2.2 per cent.
"This shows that although domestic is dominant, growth in the other segments is being targeted," Abok said.
Meanwhile, containers handled at the port during the period under review totaled 280,341 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) against a total of 232,987 TEUs dealt during the same period last year. This has given a significant increase of 20.3 per cent.
KPA attributed the increase to the number of full import containers and total transhipment, which shot up by as much as 29.9 per cent and 37.4 per cent respectively.
Abok said KPA expects the port throughput will hit yet another upswing this year. Earlier KPA projections indicated a target of 15.4 million tonnes this year. This will represent nearly a million tonne growth over the 14.4 million tonnes handled last year.
In terms of container handling, the total container traffic for 2007 is expected to reach 532,168 TEUs. This will be 52,813 TEUs above last year’s performance of 479,355 TEUs.