A container terminal at the port of Mombasa. Delay time is at its highest since that experienced during the post-election violence of 2007/8.
Shipping lines serving the Mombasa port are considering reintroducing a Vessel Delay Surcharge (VDS) that could push up the price of commodities across East Africa due to delays in discharging cargo.
The return of the penalty which was removed three years ago follows an increase in waiting time at the port over the past three months. Port managers attribute the inefficiencies to increased business and ongoing civil works at the container terminal yards.
“Measures are already being taken by shipping lines to start the process of introduction of the vessel delay surcharge at the port of Mombasa,” Kenya Ship Agents Association chairman David Mackay said.
This in turn affects the prices of virtually all goods in which there is an import component including cars, foodstuffs, agricultural inputs as well as plant and equipment for manufacturing.
The Kenya Ports Authority said rehabilitation of existing infrastructure at the container terminal yards, expansion of exit gates, adjacent roads and withdrawal of one berth from routine operations had temporarily affected yard planning.
“The port’s berth capacity was reduced when Berth No. 8 was withdrawn from normal shipping operation for nearly two months between July 4 and August 29 when it was occupied by the drug suspect vessel M.V. Amin Darya (aka Alnoor),” KPA said in a statement. President Uhuru Kenyatta presided over the sinking of the ship two weeks ago.
Mr Mackay said the VDS would be a solution to the deteriorating port performance despite measures taken to expedite clearance of ships such as call cancellations, discharges only and cut and run.
“These measures do not alleviate problems created at other ports for Mombasa cargo but also continue to add to the storage bill at trans-shipment hubs. Assets either lie idling at anchorage, extra fuel is burned to make up for lost time and maintain schedule, costing ship owners up to $40,000 per day per vehicle,” Mr Mackay said.
KPA said it had suspended major works on the yards to allow clearance of vessel backlog, review targets and bonuses for dock workers, restricted to 500 the number of export empty containers per vessel and set aside Berth 18 for discharge of vessels handling more than 3,000 TEUs.
“This is a temporary measure to reduce waiting time and to address space constraints caused by ongoing yard civil works. We will review the situation periodically and revert to previous arrangements as soon as the situation normalises,” said general manager operations Twalib Khamis.
He added that operations were expected to normalise by the end of September.
Ship agents said waiting time had gone up to 25 days on average, the highest since the post-election violence of 2008.
“The situation is especially dire for the container terminal, where productivity does not exceed 30 berth moves per hour across the vessel stay-about half of the benchmark for an efficient port,” Mr Mackay said, adding that at least 50 moves per hour would reduce the waiting time to two days.
Cargo throughout the port increased by 12.8 per cent in the months of July as 11.9 million tonnes were handled, up from 10.5 million tonnes over the same period last year.
Container traffic grew by 11.5 per cent to 463,807 TEUs over the same period. Trans-shipment traffic for the six months to June grew by 122 per cent against an estimated 12 per cent growth rate.
There were 25 ships calling at the container terminal in the months of June/July compared to 11 handled in the same period in 2013. This was due to an increase in the number of unscheduled vessels calling the port by some shipping lines such as the CMA-CGM line.
Trans-shipment traffic for the last six months also grew by 122 per cent which is way above the projected 12 per cent.
The East African
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