Construction works at the Mombasa port phase II second container terminal is set to be ready next year. Japanese firm, Toyo Construction Company announced the report and said that they will deliver the project in 14 months.
The Sh 32bn port project commenced in 2018. It is an extension to the Phase one of the Second Container Terminal, built on a Sh 26bn loan from Japan, and commissioned in April 2016. The Japanese firm was also behind the first phase, which involved reclaiming of a sea area of about 50 acres, a project that created 550,000 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit (TEUs) capacity with two new berths.
Second Container Terminal,
Phase II is being developed on another reclaimed 50-acre sea area. The second terminal is an important facility that is expected to raise capacity of the port of Mombasa to allow larger container vessels to dock. This will enable the port to fight off growing competition from the Port of Dar es Salaam in the neighboring republic of Tanzania.
Upon completion, the port is projected to be handle an extra 450,000 TEUs per year, thereby pushing up the port’s total handling capacity to 2.1 million TEUs in the next three years. It is currently at 56.3 % complete with the due date set for November 2021.
“Construction of the second Container terminal was informed by the need to expand capacity ahead of demand to cope with the exponential growth in containerized traffic. The developments at the country’s main seaport comes amid a shift in the global shipping industry, which is moving towards the use of large vessels to enjoy economies of scale,” stated Kenya Ports Authority.
To improve the country’s ports, rail and logistics services, the government has formed the Kenya Transport and Logistics Network (KTLN), which consolidates operations of KPA, Kenya Pipeline and the Kenya Railways Corporation, coordinated by the Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC).
