A calmer pace

Compared with neighbouring regions, port activity in East Africa is positively becalmed. But that’s not to say that port development has stagnated.

In Kenya, Parliament is said to be considering ideas for the port of Lamu, located towards the border with Somalia. Local sources report that these considerations appear to involve the Al Bader Group from Kuwait who wants to build a commercial port,free trade zone,resort city, regional airport, railway,highway, pipeline network and an oil refinery.

Given the investment involved, it is not surprising that the quid pro quo is exclusive,unfettered rights and the site must be exempt from any taxes and duties.The build-operate-transfer project is said to be for at least 20 years.

Elsewhere, at the existing container terminal in Mombassa current handling volumes of some 440,000 teu appear reasonable with very few berthing delays. The terminal, which is still operated by the port authority, has four new ZMPC ship-to-shore cranes and the Kenya Port Authority (KPA) is going out to tender for a further two new ones.They have 12 relatively new RTGs, from ZMPC and Kalmar, and have gone to tender for an additional eight. For future expansion considerations, this terminal is in the enviable situation of being able to extend on both sides at a much lower cost than building a new one.

A Japanese Development Institution is undertaking studies for a second container terminal almost opposite the existing one.When complete, the KPA will study the findings and if viable, and after Government approval, will go out on tender for a private operator to build and operate on a BOT basis.

While some KPA officials are somewhat sceptical about this project, the KPA has received instructions from the Government to privatise the existing terminal, and has appointed a committee to spearhead this.The managing director and general manager corporate affairs of the KPA serve on this committee together with a representative of the Treasury.The timetable for this for this process is believed to be about two years.

In Tanzania, container terminal operator Hutchison Port Holdings has been operating at in excess of 100% of the terminal’s design capacity and has been granted a significant increase to its terminal area. Its licence has also increased by a further 10 years.

Elsewhere, as privatisation of the terminal at Dar es Salaam is often heralded as one of Africa’s early successes, it was expected that gathering expressions of interest (EOI) for the general cargo operations would be relatively straight forward.And that proved to be the case, with EOI being submitted from well known local and international players including ICTSI,DSM Corridor Group/Kuwait & Gulf Link Stevedoring Co. Ltd, Sharaf Shipping Agency of Dubai with B/V Rotterdam Steinweg and also the African experts Bollore.

So it was something of a surprise that having attracted interest from 12 players that the government has since withdrawn its offer.All that has been left are a number of confused parties,that have wasted time and money on EOI that are now, it seems, unnecessary.