CONTAINER TRAFFIC IN MOMBASA INCREASES

Container traffic at Mombasa port rose slightly by 5.2 per cent to 615,733 twenty-foot equivalent units (Teus) last year, authorities said. The growth was, however, slower than the 22 per cent expansion the port saw in 2007 when it handled 585,367 Teus, the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) said in a statement.

"The slowdown in growth of container traffic was a result of a sluggish economic performance occasioned by the post-election skirmishes experienced early in the year and the current global economic downturn" KPA said.

KPA said total throughput increased to 16.41 million tonnes from 15.96 million in 2007. Although the post-election violence blocked transport routes to neighbouring landlocked countries, transit traffic headed there grew by 10.2 percent to 4.87 million tonnes from 4.4 million in the previous year, the authority said.

Three-quarters of the transit traffic was destined for Uganda, which imported 3.7 million tonnes of merchandise. The Democratic Republic Congo was in second place with 304,400 tonnes. The amount of bulk liquid handled by the port on the Indian Ocean reduced slightly to 5.63 million tonnes, a 0.2 per cent fall from the previous year. Transshipment, or goods destined for an intermediary destination, was also down.

KPA said it awarded Japan Port Consultants a project design and supervision contract for a second container terminal with a 1.2 million Teus capacity.

DISTANCE OF VARIOUS PORTS FROM MOMBASA

Distance In Nautical Miles

Mombasa - Aden 1615
Mombasa - Beira 1139
Mombasa - Berbera 1622
Mombasa - Bombay 2392
Mombasa - Cape Town 2503
Mombasa - Colombo 2496
Mombasa - Dar es salaam 171
Mombasa - Diego Garcia 1969
Mombasa - Djibouti 1729
Mombasa - Durban 1703
Mombasa - East Landon 1956
Mombasa - Kandla 2411
Mombasa - Karachi 2349
Mombasa - Kilifi 30
Mombasa - Kipini 105
Mombasa - Kismayu 301
Mombsaa - Lindi 384
Mombasa - Lamu 130
Mombasa - Madras 3037
Mombasa - Mahe Island 949
Mombasa - Malindi 60
Mombasa - Majunga 790
Mombasa - Maputo 1467
Mombasa - Mtwapa 9
Mombasa - Mauritius ( Port Louis ) 1419
Mombasa - Mogadiscio 499
Mombasa - Mtwara 368
Mombasa - Mukalla 1436
Mombasa - Muscat 2114
Mombasa - Tanga 66
Mombasa - Zanzibar 134