December 5, 2007: Poor performance at the port of Dar es-Salaam is undermining efforts to ease congestion at the Mombasa port, industry insiders said.
Importers said that while Mombasa has significantly reduced the number of days vessels are taking to dock at the port, waiting time remains unchanged at Dar-es-Salaam.
"What goes on in Dar has a direct impact on Mombasa because there is heavy diversion to Mombasa," a report compiled by the Inter Governmental Standing Committee on Shipping (ISCOS) and seen by the Business Daily said.
These delays are forcing ships to divert to Mombasa adding to the congestion crisis that the port has been trying to resolve.
The shipping lines now say they will have to introduce the decongestion measures agreed earlier this year upon the expiry of the moratorium period on December 31.
Part of the proposed measures include the introduction of a Vessel Delay Surcharge (VDS) on the port managers - a move that is expected to increase costs to port users.
Poor performance at the two ports prompted shipping lines to issue a notice of intention to impose a Sh12,800 fine for every extra day that a ship spends waiting to offload its cargo.
The shipping lines said they had been forced to introduce the measure to shield themselves from the losses incurred from extended turnaround times in the two ports. The amount chargeable was to be reviewed and adjusted in tandem with the additional costs accruing to the shipping lines.
It is estimated that failure to reduce congestion at Mombasa port would have forced Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) to pay Sh1.2 billion to the 21 registered shipping lines this year alone.
Implementation of a 24-hour working schedule in Mombasa has seen congestion ease at the port saving the management of the surcharge penalty.
KPA has also appointed two container freight stations (CFSs) - Consolbase and Mitchell Cotts as agents to handle new duty paid local containers.
The port has also set aside berths 13 and 14 for Maersk Line -the world's biggest shipping line and talks are on with six local truck companies to have them dedicate some of their trucks to transporting Inland Container Depots-bound cargo through bills of lading (TBL) arrangement.
Such cargo is currently moved by rail but an acute shortage of wagons has increased the pile up. By close of business last Friday, the CFS had handled a combined capacity of 5,372 boxes (6995 Total Equivalent Units) against the yard capacity of 4,500. It now takes three days to transfer containers from the CFS yard to the container terminus.
In the past five years, KPA has concentrated on upgrading its cargo and marine equipment at the port in a Sh7.5 billion programme.
Vibrancy in economies of hinterland countries-with average economic growths of 5.6 per cent per annum poses challenges on faster connectivity with the international markets .
Last month, KPA also received Sh16 billion loan from the Japanese Government to more than double the port's current container handling capacity through construction of a second container terminal, near the existing one.
Under the 10-year project, the port's harbour channel is to be dredged to an average depth of 15 metres and the turning basin also widened to enable Mombasa handle larger vessels, thus making it a world class and hub port for the region.
The additional container terminal -to be built on some 100 hectares of land next to the Kipevu Oil Terminal is expected to handle over 1.2 million units.
On completion in 2018, the phased-project is likely to make Mombasa one of the 20 top ports in the world in terms of performance and reputation.