East Africa’s largest and Kenya’s Port of Mombasa is experiencing substantive transshipment business as more ships evade berthing delays and waiting at the neighboring Port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Over the last one Month the Port of Mombasa has handled over 10 feeder Ships transshipping Port of Dar es Salaam containers advancing her opportunities for a regional transshipment hub. MSc Shipping Line, the second top on the world’s liner rankings has confirmed using the port of Mombasa until the situation normalizes in Dar es Salaam. Others include CMA CGM and Maersk Shipping Lines.
Statistics from Kenya Ports Authority indicate that at the beginning of this month 7894 Twenty Feet Equivalent Units (TEUS) transshipment to Dar es Salaam landed at the port of Mombasa to await nomination for second carriers to the ports of Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar. It is official that there has been a noticeable growth in transshipment volumes by an average of 2.5 percent in the last one Month.
KPA General Manager Operations Mr. Sudi Mwasinago has confirmed that amongst the Shipping Lines discharging transshipments at the Port of Mombasa for Dar es Salaam , MSC accounts for 75 percent of the total transshipment volumes while CMA CGM and Maersk accounted for 24 percent and 9 percent respectively.
He said following the significant rise in transshipment business, MSc increased to three 3 feeder services to Mombasa, on a weekly basis service. This resulted in the deployment to the route of MSc Hina feeder service to be loading to Dar Es Salaam, and MSc Judith Mirembe feeder service to be loading to Zanzibar.
On the other hand, CMA CGM vessels transshipping containers from Mombasa to Dar es Salaam are Mv. Laura and Mv. Cis-Leele while Maersk Shipping line has Mv. Nicie-E.
Mr. Mwasinago said that the delay of the MSc vessels at the port of Dar es Salaam means that more traffic is diverted to the Port of Mombasa .However , he says this has come with a host of housekeeping demands for accommodation of the rising volumes.
