KENYA REPORTS CARGO INCREASE AT MOMBASA PORT

Cargo traffic through Kenya's biggest port, Mombasa, increased by 1.4 percent in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year, the port's managing director said on Monday. 

The Indian Ocean port serves as the main trade gateway for East Africa, handling fuel and consumer goods imports as well as exports of tea and coffee from landlocked nations like Uganda. 

Managing Director Catherine Mturi said cargo volume rose to 13.4 million tonnes from 13.2 million handled a year earlier. Total volume rose despite container traffic falling by 0.6 percent to 527,523 TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) thanks to an increase in loose cargo not shipped by container such as grains and railway steel bars. 

"This is below the expected global average growth rate of four percent per annum, but with the expansion and improved efficiency currently, we should do much better by end of the year and beyond," Mturi said in the statement. 

Early this month Kenya inaugurated the first part of a new container terminal at the port, which is expected to boost capacity by 50 percent. 

The port's management says it has reduced the time it takes to evacuate a container from the port by a day to 4.3 days, and the time it takes to load and offload a ship to three days from 3.7 days previously. The east African nation plans to build a second port in Lamu, north of Mombasa, with a capacity of 23 million tonnes per year.

KENYA COMMISSIONS A NEW $296.74 M CONTAINER TERMINAL

Kenya Commissions Terminal at Mombasa Port

Kenya on Saturday inaugurated the first part of a new container terminal at Mombasa which is expected to boost by 50 percent the volume of cargo handled by East Africa's largest seaport. Construction of the 30 billion shilling ($296.74 million)terminal began in March 2012 and was completed in February this year. The project was financed by a loan from Japan through the Japan International cooperation agency (JICA), and Kenya will repay the loan over a 40-year period.

A gateway to East and Central Africa, the Indian Ocean port funnels imports of fuel and consumer goods as well as exports of tea and coffee from landlocked neighbours such as Uganda and Rwanda.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, who opened the facility, said the terminal heralded "a whole new era in the development of our ports and facilitation of the region's international trade". A bigger cargo capacity for Mombasa was crucial because of the discovery of oil and gas in the region, he said.

British explorer Tullow Oil and partner Africa Oil discovered oil in Lokichar in northwest Kenya in 2012. Recoverable reserves are an estimated 750 million barrels of crude and commercial production is expected to commence in 2017. Uganda also has confirmed crude reserves while Kenya's other neighbour Tanzania has huge gas discoveries.

The new terminal can handle 550,000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) per year and will ramp up Mombasa's existing annual cargo handling capacity from 1.05 million TEUs to 1.6 million TEUs.

"In five years' time, we expect to have hit 2.5 million TEUs after completing the second phase," Kenya's finance minister, Henry Rotich, said.

He added the country had already signed an agreement with JICA for credit worth 32 billion shillings to fund construction of the new terminal's second part. 1 = 101.1000 Kenyan shillings)