Abstract
The major development within Kenya' s maritime sector over the quarter is the
news that a new container
terminal project at the port of Mombasa is set
to go ahead after a loan of US$200mn was agreed with
Japan. The new
container terminal will be the second at the port and is set to be developed
in three
phases, coming fully online by 2018. The new container terminal
will increase the port' s container
handling capacity by 1.2mn TEUs from
the port' s current installed capacity of 450,000 TEUs.
BMI notes that the
project will go a long way to solving the congestion problems that have
plagued the
port in recent years. BMI expects congestion to ease in 2009,
as the downturn hits Kenya' s import and
export sector and trade volumes
fall. We predict that Mombasa will handle a total of 577,521 TEUs in
2009.
Although this figure is still above the port' s current installed handling
capacity, it is considerably
down from the 615,733 TEUs that the port of
Mombasa handled in 2008.
Declines are also forecast by BMI for the port' s
total tonnage throughput, with volumes set to shrink by
4.92% to 15.6mn
tonnes in 2009. For both the port' s total tonnage throughput and container
throughput
BMI expects a recovery to begin in 2010 with growth in both
sectors of 7.64% and 9.85% respectively.
BMI notes that the reason for
this decline in throughput at Kenya' s main port of Mombasa is the global
downturn, which we forecast will cause Kenya' s imports to fall by 2% and the
country' s exports to decline
by 1%, with total trade declining by 1.62%. A
recovery is set to begin in 2010 with Kenya' s total trade set
to increase
by 2.38%.
As well as an in-depth analysis of Kenya' s shipping sector,
BMI' s Q309 Kenya Shipping Report also
offers a global overview of the dry
bulk, liquid bulk and container sectors and overviews of the 11 largest
shipping lines and their strategies over the quarter to weather the downturn
in trade volumes.
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