AFRICA CONTAINER SHIPPING LINE ROUTES

Beginning This month, we will have Africa container services to the following ports directly to the following ports.

Mombasa(Which will cover South Sudan Cargo including Juba and Southern Ethiopia), Dar-Es-Salaam(Will cover Rwanda cargo, Burundi Cargo and Eastern Congo(Lubumbashi), Malawi, )Beira, Maputo, Berberra, Djibouti, Assab, Port Sudan, Port Said, Abidjan, Tema, Port Gentil, Cotonou, Dakar, Libreville covering the whole continent of Africa.

Please Visit OFFICIAL AFRICAN SHIPPING LINE 
Website: www.africanshippingline.com 

Other focal points like Alexandria, Algiers, Massawa, Bamako, Banjul, Bissau, Blantyre, Bobo-Dioulasso, Bulawayo, Cape Town, Casablanca, Conakry, Douala, Durban, East London, Freetown, Gaborone, Harare, Johannesburg, Kampala, Kitwe, Lagos, Las Palmas, Lilongwe, Lobito, Luanda, Lusaka, Mahe, Matadi, Mauritius, Mogadishu, Monrovia, Nairobi, Ndola, Niamey, Nosy Be, Nouadhibou, Nouakchott, Oran, Ouagadougou, Pointe Des Gallets, Pointe Noire, Port Elizabeth, Port Harcourt, Port Louis, Praia, Sfax, Takoradi, Tamatave, Tanga, Tangier, , Tenerife, Tunis are covered through the above nearest ports.



We have agencies in Inland Container Depots like that of Nairobi ICD and so on. Please check if you some more information on these... Shipping cargo to Africa has never been easy as ABCD....Among the details you will find are Port PDA's, Port particulars, Some Vessel/ Ship particulars and so on.

Our normal Container/RO-RO services include Ports in the Red Sea and Eastern Africa together with the ports in Gulf of Aden. General cargo to South West Africa Including Namibia, Angola(Luanda, lobito) Matadi will also be accelerated.

Africa Shipping Line Containers, RORO(Car shipment)/ Container/ BreakBulk services from China or Dubai ports to Mombasa, Mogadishu, Djibouti, Berbera, Kismayo, Zanzibar, Pemba, Juba (South Sudan) have began in earnest and shipping agents who have RO-RO cargo or any other type of cargo can contact Our Switchboard Directly on +254.726.722226 / +971-56-9538569 or email: asline@africanshippingline.ae or africanshippingdubai@gmail.com placing shipment orders. 

Our rates are always favourable. 

We will also undertake all kind of general cargo with minimal handling.Our Cut off times are strictly as schedule. Shipment of vehicles, cars to Africa has never been such easy.

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

THE FUTURE OF KENYA SHIPPING LINE

Kenya continues to lose out in the lucrative shipping industry as it continues to rely on ships for hire to transport its exports.The hope that one day the country could own its own shipping line continues to remain a mirage despite its neighbour cashing in on the high freight.


The Ethiopian Shipping Lines (ESL) continues to carve a niche in the world’s shipping industry as Kenya National Shipping Line (KNSL) shows no hope of owning its vessels soon.Maritime experts are now calling on the government to offer incentives to private entities interested to buy ships that could fly the Kenyan flag.“The dream that the country would one day own a ship, which led to the formation of KNSL in 1989, has died,” says Wilfred Kagimbi, Kenya Maritime Authority chief surveyor and receiver of wrecks.


Mr Kagimbi says KNSL dream has been overtaken by time as other African countries which purchased their own vessels have already relinquished management to private hands.



Shipping to Africa and especially to Kenya and adjacent countries is normally done by reliable shipping lines like African Shipping Line based in Dubai and other Major Lines. Freight goods include RO-RO cargo, Break bulk, project and containerized cargo mostly to Kenya and Tanzania ports that leaves for Interior.

For more enquiries, email: asline@africanshippingline.ae 

MOMBASA PORT SET TO HAVE A SECOND CONTAINER TERMINAL

The Kenya Ports Authority will increase efficiency and capacity at the port of Mombasa in a bid to position it among the top 20 ports in the world by 2010.
Currently the port is ranked fourth on the continent after Richards Bay, Saldanha and Durban in Southern Africa.

Recently-confirmed KPA managing director James Mulewa said that in order to solve the problem of capacity limitation, the authority will build a second container terminal to increase the volume of cargo handled from 600,000 twenty-foot-equivalent containers to 1.8 million. The authority has also asked for Ksh3 billion ($37.5 million) from the government “to replace the aging cranes and other equipment bought five years ago, which are now due for replacement” said Mr Mulewa.

He said the movement of cargo had improved since the number of weighbridges were reduced to two, adding that when the Rift Valley Railways streamlines operations and improves cargo delivery, it will help the port handle an increased volume of cargo. The port will also approve more container freight stations for licensing by the Kenya Revenue Authority. Currently, there are only two such stations that handle containers — Consalbase and Mombasa Container Terminal.

The two set up in October last year have handled over 50,000 teu at a time when the port was faced by a serious threat of Vessel Delay Surcharges by shipping lines.

“More CFSs with the capacity to handle 3000 teus at a go will be licensed,” Mr Mulewa said.

However, the KPA boss said that since the development of the port of Mombasa had almost reached its full capacity, and in order for the country to remain relevant in the future shipping industry in the region, it was necessary to build a second major port in Lamu. The port of Mombasa was designed to handle only 20 million tonnes of cargo per annum. The Lamu port will be expected to serve landlocked Ethiopia and Southern Sudan, with a population of 80 million and 12 million respectively.

The reconstruction of Southern Sudan has generated huge imports needs and Lamu’s direct line of sight with Addis Ababa will allow for the shortest railway link between them. With the entry of Southern Sudan into the region’s economy, it is estimated that the demand for cargo imports will rise to over 32 million tonnes of per annum. The port of Mombasa and the existing road and rail network cannot possibly handle the increase in volume and weight of materials that will be required by Southern Sudan.

Currently Southern Sudan is exporting crude oil through a 1,600 kilometre-long pipeline connecting its oil fields to the Red Sea at Port Sudan. It is expected that these volumes will increase and the region has proposed an alternative oil pipeline through Kenya. The proposed route of this second corridor is Lamu-Garissa-Isiolo-Maralal-Lodwar and Lokichogio, branching at Isiolo to Nairobi to the south and to Ethiopia in the north. It will also serve South Sudan cargo through Juba.The port at Lamu is envisaged to be linked to the port in Mombasa by a new railway line and an access road, according to a lead consultant on the project, Dr Mutule Kilonzo. Lamu has naturally deep waters and a port there would accommodate bigger ships than those docking in Mombasa.

A free trade zone that will be developed along with the port is expected to foster the growth of trade and commercial activity to make Lamu a commercial hub. Dr Kilonzo said the project is expected to start by 2010.

Dubai World has been eyeing the Mombasa Port for sometime and we are unsure if the new project will be theirs for a take.