​REMARKS BY THE KENYA PORTS AUTHORITY ACTING  MANAGING DIRECTOR, DR ARCH DANIEL MANDUKU, ON THE OCCASION OF THE STAKEHOLDERS LUNCHEON AT  VILLA ROSA KEMPINSKI HOTEL, NAIROBI ON 19TH SEPTEMBER, 2018.

  • The Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development, James Macharia
  • Principal Secretary, State Department of Transport, Ms. Esther Koimett
  • Principal Secretary, State Department of Maritime and Shipping, Mrs. Nancy Karigithu
  • KPA Board Chairman, Major General (Rtd) Joseph Kibwana
  • KPA Board and Management who are here
  • Distinguished Guests
  • Ladies and Gentlemen

Good afternoon,

I welcome you all to this occasion and thank you sincerely for honoring our invitation. My special gratitude goes to our guest of honor the CabinetS Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development Mr. James Macharia for accepting to grace this occasion.

In last year's luncheon, KPAshared a number of issues on achievements ,challenges and planned programmes. This afternoon, our duty is again to share  how far we have progressed and how we see the future.

Global perspective

Distinguished guests,

Before I give an update on the current Port performance, allow me to share an overview of the global shipping perspectives just to gauge how tuned we are to theshipping and port trend dynamics.

After an extended period of pessimism especially in early 2000, the container port industry bounced back last year as growth returned to healthy rates buoyed bystrengthening global economy.

 In last year's ranking of the top global Container Ports, a strong performance by Ports was reflected, with four new entrants achieving more than 1. Million TEUs.The good news is thatMombasa maintained its position as being among the top 120 Ports globally and number 6 in Africa after Tanger-med, Port said,Durban,Alexandria andLagos.

On the other front, Ships are getting bigger.Today the biggest ship- OOCL HongKong built and delivered in May 2017is 400 metres long and has a capacity of 21,413 TEUs.Many shipping lines have also banded together to form mega alliances to enjoy the economies of scale. Experts have concluded that if this business realignment trend continues in the next decade, we might see only few container shipping lines with mega vessels controlling the market.

This development puts pressure on ports and terminal operators to expand capacity and modernize facilities to accomodate this generation of vessels.

Equally, the ultra-competitive environment andcomplexity of supply chains requires reliable actors notably;Producers, logistics providers and oceancarriers, to provide services with few interruptions.

                                                                                                            

The Port of Mombasa

Performance

Ladies and gentlemen,

To keep abreast with these global trends, KPA has responded accordingly  in expanding port capacity and implementing other efficiency measures to meet customer needs. Before I invite our Chairman who will in turn welcome the Hon. Cabinet Secretary, let me indulge you with some of the data which will give you a view of how we have fared in 2017 and the first half of this year:

Since, we started the year, our performance has been on an upward trajectory.

In the year 2017 the Port handled a total cargo throughput of 30.35 million tons up from 27.36milllion tons handled in 2016. This represented a remarkable growth of 10.9 percent. Imports recorded athroughput of  25.60 million tons up from 23.12 million tons, giving a substantial increase of 10.8 percent.

Exports passing through the Port also increased from 3.66 million tons handled in 2016 to3.79 million tons.

 Transit traffic to the region  recorded 8.64 million tons in 2017 compared to 7.75 million tons in 2016.

Container traffic registered a performance of 1.190million TEU'S up from 1.091TEUs handled in 2016, representing a growth of 9.0 percent. This growth is way above the international average of 5 percent.

 

Distinguished participants,

In the first six months of 2018, the port handled a throughput of 15.3 million tons compared to 15 million tons during the same period last year, which represents an increased throughput of 358,853 tons.

In the same period, container traffic also increased by 30,964 TEUs, from 583.661 TEUs to 614.625 TEUs. Similarly, cargo destined to our transit markets grew by 7.3 per cent, from 4.3 million tons to 4.6 million tons while Transshipment traffic recorded54,692 TEUs compared to 38,072 TEUs during the same period last year, an increase of 43.7 per cent.

 

Ladies and gentlemen

As I noted earlier, ports are under pressure to create capacity to cope with increasing ship sizes cargo volumes. Alive to this fact, we have:

 

        • Kept pace with the modernization ofour cargo and ship handling equipment. This year alone we acquired one new Ship-to-Shore gantry crane (STS), 12 Rubber Tyred Gantry(RTG) Cranes and six rail mounted gantry cranes. In addition, we delivered one Tug boat and Four Eco Hoppers.

           
        • Continued to work closely with relevant stakeholdersto progress construction of a modern Cruise Terminal at Berth No. 1 and 2 aimed at complementing the Tourism sector. The facility is scheduled for commissioning by July 2019.

 

        • Developed a Greenport policy to guide our efforts towards attaining acceptable standards of green practices to position the Port of Mombasa as a leading world port providing sound stewardship and management of the environment.

 

        • Continued to create strong stakeholder networks nationally and internationally through active participation in maritime trade and transport logistics conferences. Last week we successfully hosted the first 26th International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) Conferenceto be held in Africa. The deliberations contributed immensely to the field of Blue Economy – an area which is under exploited in Africa.

 

        • Continued to enhance capacity building amongst our staff through training and relevant exposure to best practices.

 

        • Continued to streamline service delivery through the ICD Nairobi to improve offtake and operational fluidity. At the moment cargo delivery to the ICD is faster than the rate at which it is cleared out of the depot.

 

As I conclude, I would like to remind you of  the fortcoming East Africa Maritime Awards (EAMA) ceremony on 26th October 2018 at Serena Beach Hotel & Spa. This is the first regional maritime awards ceremomny geared towards recognizingand appreciating various players in the maritime sector for outstanding performance.

We urge you to ensure you have submitted your entries in good time.

Our pledge is to continue working with you in exploring all alternative means of making our Port among the best regionally and globally. Once again, thank you for finding time to attend this luncheon. 

May I now call upon the Chairman of KPA Board, General (Rtd.) Joseph Kibwana to make his remarks.