Mombasa, Kenya
Port Overview
Mombasa, Kenya is one of Africa’s oldest surviving ports. It can be traced back to even before the arrival of the Portuguese explorers to a time when Arabian dhows called at the Old Port on the north side of Mombasa Island.
Trade began to boom and in 1895 work began on a railway from Mombasa to Kampala in Uganda to open up the hinterland for coffee, tea, ivory and skins. As trade expanded, the interior of East Africa was opened up by the new railway. The demand grew for a fully fledged seaport with a spacious deep-water harbour. A new jetty was needed to handle larger ships bringing construction materials for the new railway.
Over the years of increase in shipping and traffic, many more various berths have been added. The rapid increase in container traffic through Mombasa prompted the port authority to extend the container handling operation upcountry. The authority also set up two inland container depots at Embakasi in Nairobi and at Kisumu on Lake Victoria.
Mombasa is equipped to handle a wide range of cargoes including dry bulks and containerised cargo. The port has a total of 19 deep water berths. Six of these are for container ships, others include tanker berths, bulk and break bulk cargo berths.
The Port of Mombasa is served by road and rail to inland destinations. This links the port to the capital Nairobi, and the neighbouring states of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the eastern DRC, and South Sudan.
Vessel operators serving Mombasa
Currently there are many carriers with service to Mombasa. With regular weekly sailings to Mombasa, it is not an issue to find a suitable sailing for your shipments.
Do feel free to write or contact us for your shipments to Mombasa. We are also able to assist on the SGS Inspection required for shipments to Kenya.
Latest Development News
There is an increasing occurrence of smuggled goods from containers in transit from Mombasa. Hence, Tanzania is now banning transshipment containers to Zanzibar through Mombasa port. Limited time is currently given for agents to clear the existing shipments already in Mombasa bound for Tanzania.
Kenya Railways Corporation is developing a new standard gauge railway line for passengers and cargo transportation between Mombasa and Nairobi. The new railway line constitutes the first phase of the project that aims to connect Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.
The Mombasa-Nairobi line is the biggest infrastructure project in Kenya since independence. It intends to shorten the passenger travel time from Mombasa to Nairobi from more than ten hours to a little more than four hours. Freight trains will complete the journey in less than eight hours.
AD&K Logistics have been assisting our customers for their shipments in and out of Kenya since our incorporation in Singapore. Our experience with shipments to Kenya and transit to areas in the region is pretty established.