Kenya’s Ksh.32 billion Container Terminal 2 welcomed its first ship with 2,704 twenty–foot equivalent units (TEUS).
The 26-metre-long vessel, CMA CMG MV Jamaica, at the Port of Mombasa as KPA begins a trial run of the facility handed over by Japanese contractor Toyoo Construction last week.
John Mwangemi, the Kenya Parts Authority interim Managing Director said the completion of the 22-berth facility will pave way for the construction of berth 23 to expand port handling capacity.
“In the trial run, KPA engineers and the marine team successfully docked a 264-metre-long MV Jamaica using two tug boats and two mooring boats. The vessel is discharging a total of 2,704 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUS) import cargo and loading 3,738 TEUS of cargo carrying agricultural products and mineral ores from East Africa,” said Mwangemi.
The MV Jamaica which operates under the Asia East Africa Kenya Service (ASEA service) connecting East Africa and the Far East becomes the first ship to dock in the new berth which is 300 meters wide.
The new terminal is set to receive 35 larger vessels with bigger carrying capacity in the trial run that will go up to June 25, 2022.
Construction of the terminal which started in September 2018, is expected to increase the port’s annual capacity by 450,000 containers, bringing the total annual capacity to 2.1 million containers.
The project was financed through a government-to-government loan facility from the Japanese government under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Mombasa Port terminal will have three berths with lengths of 230,320 and 350 metres, where the largest berths will handle Panamax container ships of 20,000 deadweight tonnage and post Panamax vessels of 60,000.
The Phase One of the second container terminal, built at a cost of Ksh.26 billion, which involved reclaiming a sea area of about 50 acres, creating 550,000 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit (TEUs) capacity, was commissioned in 2016.
Mombasa Port is the gateway for landlocked countries such as Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, and has lately witnessed major improvement through multi-billion infrastructural and technology investment.
The expansion programme, which included the construction of the Phase Two of the second container terminal and Ksh.40 billion Kipevu Oil Terminal (KOT), are part of the measures to transform the port into a logistics hub in the region.
