Container capacity at Kenya's Mombasa port is expected to increase by 180 percent by 2020, when government-planned port upgrades take effect, senior shipping officials said on Monday. Peter Thuo, director of shipping at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, told Reuters port upgrades included construction of a second container terminal, computerisation and the purchase of new equipment.
"Our aim is to get a capacity of 700,000 teus (20-foot equivalent units per year) by 2020, which will be very big business for a small port like Mombasa," he said.
Thuo said construction of the second terminal could start next year if funding was available.
The Japanese Bank for International Co-operation said it was considering financing for construction of the second container terminal but gave no figures, saying nothing had been decided.
Bernard Osero, a Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) spokesman, said the construction of a second container terminal and conversion of four existing berths would cost an estimated $184 million.
Thuo said computerisation and equipment upgrades would significantly increase productivity even if Japanese financing failed to come through.
Early this year, the government facilitated a finance package worth 5 billion Kenyan shillings ($61.7 million) to purchase new equipment, including tug boats, cranes and container handling equipment for the port.
Mombasa's current capacity for handling containers is 250,000 teus per year. By September this year the port had already handled 328,043 teus, up 18.5 percent over the same period in 2003.
Shipping officials attribute increased container movement to high economic growth in the region, including southern Sudan, and a shift towards containerised cargo. The KPA says Ethiopia is also interested in using the Mombasa port.
Thuo said Kenya's bad roads were hindering container movements, but that the World Bank and European Commission were currently funding rehabilitation of the network. Kenya's only international port, Mombasa was largely compliant with UN security requirements that came into force on July 1, Thuo said.
The requirements, known as the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) code, are mandatory for all merchant ships and ports engaged in global trade.
"By the first of July, we had done most of the requirements for the ISPS code," he said, adding he expected a team of World Bank-financed consultants to complete an independent security audit at Mombasa and five other Kenyan ports before next year.