By Sadik Hassan
Operations at the port of Lamu are set for a significant boost as the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) prepares to receive three state-of-the-art Ship-to-Shore gantry cranes (STS) on Sunday, enhancing the port’s performance.
According to KPA Managing Director William Ruto, the port is anticipating the arrival of a vessel carrying a substantial consignment of bulk cargo.
Capt. Ruto said the Ethiopian government had shown keen interest in using the port because of the emerging Red Sea upheaval.
He lauded the government for improving security on the LAPSSET corridor highway that will connect the Port of Lamu with Ethiopia and South Sudan, with only a small section of the road still under construction.
The Ethiopians, he said, have surveyed the highway that will facilitate transportation of cargo from the port.
“They have committed themselves that very soon they will start picking cargo in Lamu, with the new ship-to-shore crane arriving in Lamu. We expect to see a paradigm shift in terms of handling of transshipments,” said Capt. Ruto.
He added that the Port of Mombasa is handling 30 to 40 per cent of transshipment cargo resulting from inefficiencies from other regional ports and Red Sea challenges.
“What is happening in the Red Sea, maybe bad, but is also a blessing to the Port of Mombasa,” stated Capt. Ruto.
The KPA MD noted that the modernization of the Port of Mombasa through the commissioning of four new ship-to-Shore Gantry cranes (STS) last year, has enhanced the port’s output.
“The port of Mombasa is doing very well. I want to appreciate my team, in the month of March, we broke a record of handling more than 180,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in a month, this has never been achieved before,” revealed Capt. Ruto.
He added that the port’s output exceeds that of other ports in the region as they are handling about 500,000 TEUs and pointed out that in the next four or five months they will surpass what their competitors are handling in a year.
In March, when he released the KPA Annual Review and Bulletin of Statistics 2023, he appreciated the government’s commitment to enhancing port infrastructure and connectivity in its quest to support economic growth.
“This has had a positive impact on KPA’s other terminals and ports, which are also registering admirable performance in a bid to meet the growing demand,” stated Capt. Ruto.
Kisumu Port performance improved significantly by 119 percent to record 127,745 MT in 2023 against 58,290 MT in 2022.
The Port of Lamu handled 37,576 MT in 2023 against 6,539 MT in 2022, registering a growth of 31,037 MT. It also registered an increase of 1,397 TEUs in container traffic, recording 1,779 TEUs in 2023 from 382 TEUs in 2022.
The Inland Container Depot (ICD) Nairobi handled 332,100 TEUs in the year under review, compared to 403,665 registered in 2022. The ICD Naivasha recorded 6,294 TEUs in 2023, compared with 7,617 TEUs in 2022.
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