Kwala dry port to ease Dar cargo congestion

Dar es Salaam. In an effort to streamline the flow of cargo at the Dar es Salaam port, the government has brought the Kwala Dry Port into full operation, with at least 60 percent of the goods now being handled at the latter.

This was revealed in the city yesterday by the Dar es Salaam Port director, Mrisho Mrisho, during a weekly press briefing about port operations during the first month of the year 2024.

This comes at a time when the Dar es Salaam port was grappling with a monumental rise in the volume of cargo, propelled by the ongoing implementation of strategic projects and an improvement in mining and other economic activities in neighbouring countries.

Apart from cargo that is imported to support such national strategic projects as the Standard Gauge Railway line (SGR), the 2,115 Megawatt Julius Nyerere Hydropower Dam, and the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop), the Dar es Salaam port is also handling copper from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as well as other cargo from Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

According to Mr Mrisho, with the growth in cargo, the rule now is that all goods in transit are received at Kwala Dry Port, where other logistics are completed before they are shipped to their relevant countries.

To raise efficiency at the Dar es Salaam Port, the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) has assigned slots at the Kwala Dry Port to Burundi, Rwanda, the DRC Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Zambia. The countries are to use the spaces for consolidation and other logistics.

”Kwala serves as a strategic response to the ongoing cargo congestion in different dry ports and other storage facilities like Ubungo in Dar es Salaam and Misugusugu in the Coast Region, where more than 400 tracks with copper loads have stagnated,” said Mrisho.

According to Mrisho, all the facilities and institutions required for port operations were already at the Kwala Dry Port, and several other cargo types were already being handled there.

At least 300 containers were currently being handled at the Kwala Dry Port each day, he said.

“Kwala Dry Port was initially meant to service transit containers, but demands are constantly evolving, and therefore, due to the expansiveness of the area that we service, it now extends beyond transit containers,” he said.

The location, he said, was strategically positioned, intersected by both the railway, roads, and the anticipated Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), yet the area, as observed, is surrounded by industrial facilities.

The chairman of the Tanzanian Small Truck Owners Association (Tamstoa), Chuki Shaaban, highlighted a crucial remedy for their ongoing struggles.

“Trucks endure a 20-day wait to unload copper cargo due to limited storage, causing significant carrier losses. A single day’s delay results in added expenses, including the driver’s allowance and a $60 (Sh150,000) daily late box fee,” he said. Mr Shaaban stressed that congestion contributes to cargo theft, citing three recent incidents, and he is optimistic that diverting cargo to Kwala Dry Port will relieve congestion and tackle the challenges they were facing.

Once completed, the dry port will have the capacity to accommodate 3,800 transit containers, according to the port official.

According to Mr Mrisho, in January 2024, a total of 86 ships of various sizes and cargo-carrying capacities were serviced at the Dar es Salaam port. Notably, between February 1 and 4, 10 additional ships have already been handled.

Emphasising the significant cargo capacity, Mr Mrisho said that since October 2023, the port has consistently managed a monthly throughput of at least 2.5 million metric tonnes, a notable increase from the previous average of 1.9 million metric tonnes for the same period in the preceding year.

The cargo comprises diverse loads, primarily transported in standardised shipping containers, with an average of 90,000 containers being processed, a substantial rise from the earlier figure of 50,000 during that period.

On the sugar saga, without specifying their sizes, Mrisho mentioned that they have already serviced three ships, prioritising them according to instructions from the sugar board.

“The first vessel arrived on January 29 and was promptly handled the same day. The next two ships, which arrived on February 2, were also efficiently serviced within a day. These vessels experienced delays due to their additional task of unloading cargo for neighbouring countries,” he explained.

TPA said last month that apart from the Kwala Dry Port project, it will also implement a multi-million dollar project, including the construction of four new berths at the Dar es Salaam port, as it seeks to create capacity to meet the current boom in ships calling at the country’s main sea gateway.

Apart from constructing berths 12, 13, 14, and 15, the government will also build a Conventional Buoy Mooring (CBM) for petroleum products, build a port at Bagamoyo, and build a facility to temporarily store goods for export or import via the Dar es Salaam at Kurasini Area.

Without revealing the actual amount to be invested in the projects, TPA director general Plasduce Mbossa said completing a single berth would cost anything between $100 million (Sh260 billion) and $150 million (Sh390 billion).