Artist’s impression of the Bagamoyo Port and SEZ Masterplan – Source: http://www.ansaf.or.tz/Investment%20…0(%20EPZA).pdf

Growing volumes of cargo at all African ports has forced port authorities and operators to increase capacity, analyse operations to increase efficiency, and employ measures to allow bigger ships into their ports. The East Africa Region has various projects underway. The new Lamu Port in Kenya costing $5.3 billion (Reuters.com) and the Bagamoyo port in Tanzania costing $11 billion (The East African) are examples of countries preparing for the ever-growing port capacity needs. When completed in 2017, Bagamoyo will become the biggest container terminal in Africa: with a planned cargo of 20 million TEU a year; it will be 20 times larger than the port at Dar-es- Salaam and likely to rank in the top 10 terminals in the world in terms of volume capacity.

Reconfiguring port layout, and increasing berths at existing ports and conducting dredging more often, have been other strategies that numerous ports have employed to meet this need. Port of Maputo will be undertaking dredging to increase its channel depth from 11 meters to 14 meters this year, to allow larger vessels entry (Dredgingtoday.com). Tanzania will invest $523 million for new berths 13 and 14 to more than double its container capacity at Dar es Salaam Port (Tradeinvestafrica.com).

Source: portexpansioneastafrica.com

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