Mombasa Port Study
Mombasa Port Logistics & Market Study
Client: China Road & Bridge Engineering Company/Atkins Shenzhen Co.
Date:2017
The new Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line between Mombasa and Nairobi was under construction and due to open in 2018. MDS Transmodal was commissioned to produce 30-year traffic forecasts for the railway and for the Port of Mombasa.
The Question
How much port traffic could the Port of Mombasa secure over a 30 year period, taking into account the potential of the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway to extend the hinterland of the port?
The Solution
- Developed port traffic forecasts for Mombasa, based on trade data from MDST’s World Cargo Database (WCD) and its forecasting module to produce future cargo traffic volumes by mode of appearance. (containers, dry bulks, liquid bulks, break bulks, general cargo and roll on-roll off, including motor vehicles).
- Used the MDST End-to-End Container Cost Model (E2ECCM) to estimate the detailed cost impacts of diverting both existing and anticipated shipping services to the Mombasa New Port.
- Developed a multi-modal inland transport cost model to estimate the volumes of freight moving between parts of Kenya as well as Uganda, South Sudan, Burundi and Ruanda; determined the current costs of transport between these different areas and to and from competing ports by inland mode (road, rail and, where relevant, lake and river) and then forecast volumes of freight that could be attracted after the new SGR was opened and then extended to Kampala and elsewhere.
The Outcome
MDST’s report set out the port forecasts and provided recommendations on the commercial operation of the SGR. The first commercial freight train on the SGR ran from Mombasa to the Embakasi Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Nairobi on January 1 2018. In November 2018 Kenya Port Authority confirmed that the Nairobi ICD annual capacity would be increased from 180,000 TEUs to 450,000 TEUs to complement the SGR and accommodate the increasing cargo destined for the hinterland.