While this happened, the container dwell time at the port recorded 4.35 days down from 4.85 days experienced in the previous week. A total of 10 container ships went alongside both the existing and the new container terminal two to discharge 11,449 Twenty Feet Equivalent Units (TEUs) full and empty and also loaded for export another 9,230 TEUs.
During the week under review, 10,438 TEUs were delivered out of the port through road transport marking an increase of 1,567 TEUs or 17.66 percent compared to the previous week. Deliveries by rail plummeted to 109 TEUs down by 48 percent.
The total container population rose to 17,226 TEUs from 15,244 TEUs the previous week registering an increase of 1,982 TEUs or 13 percent. The yard population comprised 7,325 TEUs awaiting pickup order, 4,647 TEUs ready for collection 771 TEUs full exports (nominated/un-nominated).Others included 441TEUs for transhipments, 3,261 TEUs empties and 781 TEUs at the Customs Warehouse.
Cargo moved to the Container Freight Stations (CFS) recorded 818,494 TEUs out of which 814,690 TEUs were cleared leaving a balance of 3,804 TEUs. The Import breakdown showed that 3,705 TEUs were local bound while 5,205 TEUs were for the transit destinations. Cargo destined for Uganda accounted for a total of 3,969 TEUs or 76.25 percent of the transit market segment and 44.54 percent of total imports in the week.
The performance by other transit countries indicates that Tanzania bound cargo accounted for 336 TEUs. The upward trend for the Tanzania bound is arguably bound to continue following the completion of the upgrading of the road from Voi to Taveta by the Government. It is argued that this development has seen increased number of shippers in northern Tanzania prefer routing their consignments through the northern corridor.
Other transit destinations were South Sudan which accounted for 302 TEUs, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with 268 TEUs, Rwanda with 260 TEUs, Somalia with 51 TEUs while Burundi and Ethiopia stagnated at 11 TEUs and 08 TEUs respectively.
As this happened, the other part of the port, the Conventional cargo terminal worked 21 vessels, handling 161,759 metric tonnes at an average of 23,108 metric tonnes per day. The discharge operations of Bulk wheat accounted for 44,772 metric tonnes to turn out as the main operation. This was followed by the offloading of bulk maize and bulk fertilizer that accounted for 28,128 metric tonnes and 21,968 metric tonnes respectively. Other cargoes handled in large quantities included sludge that accounted for 19,940 metric tonnes, steel at 17,060 metric tonnes and bagged sugar at 6,985 metric tonnes.
The Conventional cargo terminal also handled 1587 units of motor-vehicles and 42 units of trucks. The terminal is expected to handle 449,372metric tonnes of imports and another 5400 metric tonnes exports in the next two weeks. The Container Terminals are expected to discharge 10,366TEUs and load 10,631TEUs.
