TANZANIA Ports Authority (TPA) will register another milestone today with the arrival of the longest Post Panamax vessel ever to call at the Dar es Salaam port.

The vessel with 255 metres long is expected to arrive in Dar es Salaam today and later berth at a facility operated by the Tanzania International Container Terminal (TICTS).

The vessel, Clemens Schulte, which was built last year, is a container ship registered in Singapore, with gross tonnage of 51,872 and dead weight of 65,193. Its length and breadth is 255m x 37m.

TPA acting Corporate Communications Manager, Ms Janeth Ruzangi, said the arrival of the vessel from LaemChabang port in Thailand is testimony of growing confidence of international shipping lines in the port.

“This shows the confidence on us is growing day by day due to increased efficiency in port services,” she said. TICTS Corporate Development Director, Mr Donald Talawa, the last longest vessel to call at the terminal was MSC Martina with 242 metres long in February 2015.

Clemens Schulte is expected to discharge 250 containers and load 1,300 containers during this maiden call. Dar es Salaam port is undergoing massive transformation to improve its physical infrastructural capacity and enhance operational efficiency.

Improvements at the Dar es Salaam port include implementation of Integrated Electronic Payment System (IePS) for all dues and the Integrated Security System (ISS).

The port in collaboration with other stakeholders is now operating 24/7. It is expected that Dar es Salaam port’s throughput will be increase to 18 million tonnes by 2016/2017 and 22 million tonnes by 2020.

The port serves seven landlocked countries which are the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Source: Daily News

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