RLL Container Report - 14 September 2016
From: John Keir, Ross Learmont Ltd. Email: john.keir@telia.com Date: 14 September 2016
Forging the future of rail transport in Africa.
On the 20th of July, China signed an undertaking to invest USD 7.6 Billion in a major rail project to link the Tanzanian Indian Ocean ports, including the main box terminal at Dar es Salam, with cities in the centre and west of the country. The loan was agreed during a meeting in the Tanzanian capital, Dodoma, which will be one of the major beneficiaries of the new standard-gauge rail line. From the capital, the new railway will continue west to Kigoma on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Other lines will link the capital and the main sea port with Lake Victoria, as well as the neighbouring country of Burundi. A total of 2,200 km of single rail track will be laid in Tanzania and much of the main line will follow the route of the existing metre-gauge track.
As with similar infrastructure projects in neighbouring Kenya, the metre gauge track will be maintained in order to provide additional capacity for freight and passenger trains. Both the East Africa countries had hoped to establish their container ports as the main conduit for box traffic from the Indian Ocean into the heart of Africa. Kenya seemed well-placed to profit from their development plans but a combination of factors caused countries in central Africa to review their options, which would now appear to favour a more southerly route via Tanzania.
The first phase of Mombasa Port's second container terminal has been commissioned at the same time as Japan committed US$267 million for the next phase of the port’s development. Built at a cost of 30 Billion Kenyan Shillings, the Mombasa facility has a capacity of 550,000 teu and has been receiving vessels since April. Construction of Phase 2 of the second terminal will commence in June of next year and it will take up to three years to complete the 450,000 teu facility, by which time the Port of Mombasa should be able to handle 1.55 million teu per annum. The next target will be an annual throughput of 2.5 million teu, which the Kenyan port expects to reach by 2021.
By maintaining the century-old narrow gauge railways, both East Africa countries can use old colonial rail lines to relieve pressure on the single-track standard gauge lines, which will have a restricted capacity and will at times struggle to with cope the explosion in container traffic and the sharp rise in passenger numbers.
John Keir, Ross Learmont Ltd.
14 September 2016
Copyright ©, 2016, John Keir