The Port of Mombasa recorded a total container population of 14,411 Twenty Feet Equivalent Units (TEUs) in the week ended October 18th2017. This represented an increase of 2,444 TEUs or 20.42 percent compared to the previous week.
The new container population comprised 5,275 TEUs awaiting pickup order, 3,323 TEUs ready for collection by consignees and 1,073 TEUs full exports (nominated/un-nominated).Others included 662 TEUs transhipments, 3,208 TEUs empties and 870 TEUs at the Customs Ware house.
During the week under review, 11 container vessels went alongside the two container terminals registering a ship average working time of 1.77 days as Container dwell time recorded 3.78 days. The vessels discharged a total of 12,309 TEUs (full and empty) and loaded another 11,736 TEUs.
Deliveries of containers from the port by road transport registered 10,786 TEUs, registering a decline of 527 TEUs compared to the previous week. Evacuation of containers from the port by rail registered 312 TEUs recording an increase of 36 TEUs. The Container Freight Stations (CFS) received 823,173TEUs delivered to consignees 819,562TEUs leaving a balance of 3,611 TEUs.
The Import population breakdown during the week revealed that 5,221 TEUs were bound for the transit market while 2,055 TEUs were locally destined. As usual Uganda remained the leading transit market destination accounting for 4,026 TEUs equivalent to 77.11 percent. Tanzania came out second accounting for 400 TEUs followed by South Sudan with 346 TEUs and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with 215 TEUS. Other transit destinations included Rwanda and Burundi which recorded 215 TEUS and 16 TEUs respectively.
It was another vibrant week for the conventional cargo terminal which worked 29 vessels, handling 297,650 metric tonnes at an average of 42,521 metric tonnes per day. Bulk Clinker, a key ingredient for manufacturing cement recorded 84,282 metric tonnes to emerge the leading commodity handled at the terminal. Also handled at the dame terminal were 41,373 metric tonnes of bulk wheat, 30,157metric tonnes of steel, 28,229 metric tonnes of bulk sorghum, and 25,406 metric tonnes of bulk sugar. Other commodities handled at the conventional cargo terminal in fairly large quantities included 14,987 metric tonnes of bulk fertilizer, 14,090 metric tonnes of bulk maize, 12,272 metric tonnes of bulk coal and 12,243 metric tonnes of bulk illuminate. Car carriers discharged 2345 units of motorcars and 1000 trucks.
Meanwhile forecast for the next two weeks shows that the conventional cargo terminal is expected to receive 18 general cargo ships that will discharge 283158 metric tonnes and load 1,4492metric tonnes. The Container Terminals are expected to receive 10 container ships, discharge 8,017 TEUs and load 9,600TEUs.