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KPA
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g r o w t h Navigating Navi
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Logistics
Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) is the state-owned company that handles the Port of Mombasa, the largest in East Africa, as well as numerous other ports and facilities up and down the Kenyan coast. Handling more than 13 million tonnes of throughput every year, KPA has the difficult task of balancing dozens of stakeholders, requirements, responsibilities and issues that come up in the running of a major seaport.
last covered the Kenya Ports Authority two years ago in January 2016, at a time of significant planned growth and expansion. Mombasa, the country’s main responsibility, was seeing 11% increases in traffic every year, with its berth occupancy at an average of 80% and hungry inland economies eager to use it to access international trade. The Mombasa Port Development Project (MPDA), KPA’s effort to achieve World Class Seaports of Choice status, was underway, with a second container terminal 92% away from firstphase completion and huge
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K e n y a
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A u t h o r i t y
Tata Chemicals Magadi Tata Chemicals Magadi (TCML) occupies a significant place in the African economy. It is Africa’s largest Soda Ash manufacturer and leading exporters.
dredging and development operations underway to attempt to resolve Mombasa’s natural shortcomings as a cargo port. Moreover, down the coast, the sleepy tourist village of Lamu was a strong contender for the site of Kenya’s second internationally recognised port, and development was beginning on the massive undertaking of building it into a regional competitor.
“Two years on, KPA’s efforts to develop Kenya’s coastal transport links are continuing
Infrastructural challenges
Two years on, KPA’s efforts to develop Kenya’s coastal transport links are continuing. 2018 has already seen the first freight train on the MombasaNairobi railway, connecting Nigeria to the port and opening up a whole new trade route. The new KPA-run Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Embakasi has been launched and opened by President Uhuru Kenyatta, although it’s under-capacity – Kenya Railways has been forced to repeatedly cut cargo charges (the second round of cuts lasting until April 4th) in an effort to draw more users. Concerns about cooperation between Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Revenue Authority and Kenya railways have been raised by various companies including the Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (KIFWA), along with concerns about clearance of cargo at the Nairobi end of the line.
Established in 1911, TCML has been producing Soda Ash at Lake Magadi for more than 100 years. The company recovers trona which is a naturally occurring mineral; from the base of the Rift Valley at Lake Magadi, Kenya. TCML converts the trona into Soda Ash through an elaborate manufacturing process of dredging, calcination, grinding and screening. The product is then transported by rail to the Port of Mombasa for onward shipping on to our export markets. TCML Soda Ash is an essential constituent in the manufacture of container glass, detergents and other industrial chemicals. Over 95 per cent of the company’s product is exported to its principal markets of South East Asia, the Indian sub-continent, Africa and the Middle East. Lake Magadi deposit also provides the raw material to the manufacture salt. Our heritage spans more than 100 years of producing the best natural salt, produced at source. Magadi Salts have a wide range of applications in industrial and animal feeds
Eng. Jackson Muchira Managing Director Tata Chemicals Magadi Contact us at: Email: infomagadi@tatachemicals.com Facebook: TataChemicalsMagadi; Twitter: TataChemicalsKe
www.tatachemicals.com/magadi
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K e n y a
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Widening reach
KPA has also been dealing with crime and fraud, with warnings issued against fraudulent contracts and material supply tenders in the country and forgeries of Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure contracts. KPA has insisted that it is not liable for losses from this kind of fraud, and its spokesmen further stressed that it does not engage proxies to conduct procurement on its behalf. Meanwhile in Mombasa itself, the National Lands Commission has identified land illegally claimed from KPA, something the Ports Authority and the Kenya Maritime Authority have complained about for some time. Some illegally claimed land even interferes with navigational signals, potentially threatening vessels in Mombasa’s already crowded waters.
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“The expansion of the port of Mombasa has continued apace, with a $430 million (Sh35 billion) loan from the government of Japan signed to help complete phase two of the planned s econd container terminal
Smaller Kenyan ports are now coming under KPA’s authority, including Lamu and the smaller port of Kisumu on Lake Victoria in March of 2017. Kisumu was once owned by the Kenya Railways Corporation, handling vast quantities of cargo, but it has been underutilised and has numerous ships and ferries effectively abandoned at its docks through unrepaired mechanical failure or lack of business. One notable vessel, the MV Uhuru, was grounded between 2006 and 2016 after technical difficulties and lack of business made it uneconomical to run, cutting off the KisumuMwanza-Port Bell route between Kenya and Uganda. Repairs and more efficient cargo handling techniques will allow the Uhuru to carry economical loads of cargo once again, and Kisumu is due to be connected to Nairobi via a standard-gauge line as well as a pier refurbishment, as well as a planned Sh14 billion port facility. The expansion of the port of Mombasa has continued apace, with a $430 million (Sh35 billion) loan from the government of Japan signed to help complete phase two of the planned second container terminal at the Port, with construction commencing in January 2018. Phase one was completed back in September of 2016 at a cost of Sh28 billion, raising the port’s cargo handling capacity by 550,000 Twenty-Foot Equivalent
Logistics
the added convenience. The Lokichar-Lamu pipeline, which has seen heavy investment from the oil major Total, is also going ahead, committing the South Sudanese oil industry to exporting through Kenya after a previous about-face. Units, standard shipping container size. The second phase will add another 450,000 TEUs of capacity. These upgrades are vital – the various nations inland of Kenya are currently driving a bidding war between multiple coastal nations to provide the preferred route to the Indian Ocean, particularly Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania and Djibouti. Mombasa is naturally limited by its geography, making it important to use the space that is available as efficiently as possible.
Corridors of power
Another major area of interest for KPA is the aforementioned Lamu port, one end of the planned Lamu Port, South Sudan, Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor. The Corridor, which is planned to carry goods, people and oil between Ethiopia/South Sudan and Lamu and Mombasa, is still a while away, but some elements like the Isiolo-Moyale Road and the Isiolo International Airport have been completed, and shipping costs are already beginning to drop thanks to
“The Isiolo-Moyale Road and the Isiolo International Airport have been completed, and shipping costs are already beginning to drop thanks to the added convenience
Finally, Mombasa is also seeing more and more commercial cruise traffic after many years of decline. While one vessel cancelled a call in 2017 following political unrest around the election, more than 2,800 tourists arrived at Mombasa’s cruise port over the past four months, a small but growing number. A $3.4 million terminal at Mombasa financed under public-private partnerships with the Kenyan government is under construction and behind schedule as of January 2018, which could cause problems with its goal of bringing in 140,000 tourists per year when completed. Catherine Mturi-Wairi, KPA’s managing director, has said that the terminal will be completed in mid-2018, and as pirate activity in the Gulf of Aden continues to decline and the Indian Ocean becomes safer, cruise traffic into Kenya is likely to rise.
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Kenya Ports Authority P.O. Box 95009-80104 Mombasa T: +254-41-2112999 E: customerfeedback@kpa.co.ke E: ca@kpa.co.ke
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@EssentialBizMag Essential Business Publishing Ltd @EssentialBusinessAfrica Essential Business Magazine
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