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Covid-19: KPA loses business as virus ravages economy
Trucks wait to collect cargo at the port of Mombasa in October last year. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The ports total throughput for the quarter dropped by 2.1 per cent to 11.3 million tonnes, down from 11.5 million over a similar period last year.
- In terms of exports, Mombasa port recorded a drop to 1.42 million tonnes for the quarter, as compared to 1.45 million over a similar period last year.
The Port of Mombasa has recorded a marginal drop in the total container traffic in the first quarter of 2020 compared to a similar period last year due to challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic that has disrupted supply value chains and trading patterns for both imports and exports, the latest port report indicates.
This raises doubts of the port attaining its 35.9 million tonnes throughput and 1.49 million 20 foot equivalent units (TEUs) target in 2020 as stated in the Kenya Ports Authority’s (KPA) master plan.
Latest port performance from KPA figures seen by the Nation show that the port handled 445,435 TEUs in the four months of this year, down from 454.466 over a similar period last year, a clear manifestation of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on containers handled.
Save for transit traffic, the port recorded a drop in the number of tonnage traffic on imports, exports, local containers handling, and transshipment traffic.
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