DAR ES SALAAM Port is steadily winning the confidence of shippers-thanks to massive improvements in its physical infrastructural capacity and operational efficiency.
From customers in neighbouring landlocked countries to international shipping liners, the port had transformed with improved services and capacity to rival other established facilities along the coast of Indian Ocean. Last month, the port received a 255 (LOA) meters long vessel, the longest vessel it had ever handled early this month.
The vessel, named Clemens Schulte from a top global shipping line Maersk Group, with a capacity to carry 5,466 containers, docked at the port early this month to signify the level of confidence international shipping liners have for the port.
It discharged 250 containers and load 1,300 containers during the maiden call. Stakeholders applauded the new development saying it marked an important milestone in the efforts to upgrade operations at the port.
“We see strong operational improvements in productivity and performance at the port, which provides the confidence for Maersk Line to commit this scale of vessel to the East African trade,” said the Chief Executive Officer of the Tanzania International Container Terminal Services Ltd (TICTS), Mr Paul Wallace.
The improvements at the port are geared to restore its old glory what was once seen as the most efficient in the sub-Saharan Africa but could not hold the status for long. The performance of the port, which is the second-largest in East Africa had slipped dramatically over the past 20 years making it losing business to her rivals in the region.
The Tanzania Economic Update (TEU), a biannual series on the country’s economy, shows that container vessels transporting imported merchandise were on average queuing for 10 days to be able to berth at the Dar es Salaam Port.
It could also take up to an additional 10 days to unload the merchandise, clear it and transport it. By comparison, container vessels at the Port of Mombasa, the largest in East Africa, took less than a day to berth in 2012, and three-to-four days to unload, clear and transport merchandise.
The international standard is two days. World Bank estimated that trade costs are 60 per cent higher between Tanzania and China than between Brazil and China, despite the distance between the Latin American country and the world’s second-biggest economy being almost double because of poor performance of the port.
According to the World Bank, delays at the port could last up to 20 days for everyday items such as diapers and milk to emergency medical supplies and medicines It should be noted that the Dar es Salaam Port provides a gateway for 90 per cent of all trade in the country and it is also the access route to six landlocked countries including Malawi, Zambia, Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda, as well as Eastern DRC.
The high cost at the port had always been transferred to customers meaning the situation at the port was not a problem to Tanzania only but also other neighbouring countries. The government, with support from development partners and other stakeholders, has been keen to reverse trend at the port and increase its efficiency and productivity.
It worked on identified weaknesses at the port which included failure to invest in appropriate infrastructure, corruption and those who benefit from it, a general lack of awareness of the costs by stakeholders and the unequal distribution of those costs. Apart from upgrading of physical the infrastructure, operations at the port has improved significantly.
The port adopted a new payment system, Tanzania Inter-bank Settlement System (TISS), an online system that facilitates real time and gross settlement of payment instructions between banks.
The Central Bank extended working hours of the new system to allow port users pay their taxes up to 8.00 pm. Port authorities described the extension of TISS working hours a game-changer in efforts to decongest Dar es Salaam port.
The Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Mr Gabriel Migire, said apart from improving port efficiency with a view to attaining targets under the Big Results Now (BRN) initiative in the transport sector, the new extension would enhance government revenue collection and money transfers as well as improve efficiency in cargo handling.

Source: Daily News

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