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Dar Es Salaam Port News

22 Oct 2023

Tanzania Inks Deals with DP World to Operate Dar es Salaam Port Berths

© druid007 / Adobe Stock

Tanzania on Sunday signed agreements with Dubai state-owned ports operator DP World to operate part of the Dar es Salaam port for 30 years, a deal that has previously been opposed by Tanzania opposition and rights groups.Plasduce Mbossa, director general of state-owned Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) which currently manages the port, said DP World will lease and operate four of the 12 berths at the country's largest port.Dar es Salaam also serves landlocked nations in east and southern Africa like Uganda…

07 Dec 2015

Tanzanian President Sacks Port Chief in Anti-graft Campaign

Newly-elected President John Magufuli has sacked the head of Tanzania's ports authority and the top official in the transport ministry, part of a campaign to root out corruption and inefficiency in the East African nation. Magufuli fired the director general of the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA), Awadhi Massawe, and the permanent secretary in the transport ministry, Shaaban Mwinjaka, following the disappearance of over 2,700 shipping containers at the port. Massawe, who was acting director of the port since February before being formally confirmed to the position in October by Magufuli's predecessor, President Jakaya Kikwete, becomes the third port chief to be sacked in as many years.

20 Oct 2015

Port Construction: Tanzania Kicks Off $11B Project

Work started last week on an $11bn megaport in Tanzania, funded by China and Oman, which the country’s president said would spark an “industrial revolution” in the east African nation. The new port at Bagamoyo will dwarf the country’s current main port at Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam, approximately 75km  (47 miles) to the south on the Indian Ocean coast,  is the country’s main commercial port but is over its full capacity. President Jakaya Kikwete attended a groundbreaking ceremony and said construction of phase I of the project would take three years. “The construction of the Bagamoyo port and a special economic zone is aimed at realising the government’s goal of bringing about an industrial revolution in Tanzania,” he said.

16 Oct 2015

Tanzania Starts Work on $10 bln Port Project Backed by China and Oman

Tanzania started construction work on a $10 billion port and special economic zone on Friday, a project backed by China and Oman that aims to transform the East African country into a regional trade and transport hub. The port, which will be Tanzania's biggest, is being built at Bagamoyo, 75 km (47 miles) north of Dar es Salaam - the commercial capital that is currently the site of the country's main port, which is operating beyond its capacity with limited space for expansion. President Jakaya Kikwete attended a groundbreaking ceremony and said construction of phase I of the project would take three years. "The construction of the Bagamoyo port and a special economic zone is aimed at realising the government's goal of bringing about an industrial revolution in Tanzania," he said.

10 Jul 2015

Tanzania: Dar es Salaam 2015 Port Volume to Increase

Cargo volumes at Dar es Salaam port are expected to rise as much as 25 percent this year, helped by expanded capacity and improved efficiency, Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete said in his last address to parliament before an election in October. The port, whose main rival is bigger but also congested Mombasa in Kenya, acts as a trade gateway for landlocked states such as Zambia, Rwanda, Malawi, Burundi and Uganda, as well as the eastern region of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). "In 2014 the port handled 14.4 tonnes of cargo ... We expect it to reach 18 million tonnes this year," Kikwete said late on Thursday. "The port currently operates 24 hours a day and the speed of unloading and loading cargo has significantly increased ...

15 Mar 2015

Tanzania Dreams Big with Port Project

In its heyday, Bagamayo was a gateway to the heart of Africa for colonisers, with trade goods surging in from the Indian Ocean, and timber, ivory and countless slaves exported from the east coast harbour. Then Bagamoyo, which looks out towards the island of Zanzibar, fell on lean times for more than a century. Now Tanzania plans an $11 billion project to make it the region's biggest port and an engine of Africa's boom. The Chinese-backed project would dwarf Kenya's port at Mombasa, east Africa's trade gateway some 300 km (180 miles) to the north, and include an industrial zone and rail and road links to capitalise on growth in a region hoping to exploit new oil and gas finds.

11 Feb 2015

Dar es Salaam Port Enhances Capacity

Tanzania's Dar es Salaam Port has got ready to welcome large container vessels including MSC Martina, one of the largest container vessels. Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) has informed that the adequate improvements have enabled to dock such large vessels at the country's major port. The Mediterranean Shipping Company's container vessel with an overall length of 244 meters and width of 32.2 meters and carrying capacity of 2,411 containers docked without any problem, said Madeni Kipande, Acting Director General, TPA. Kipande explained that the MSC Martina is one of the largest container ships owned by the Geneva-based Italian Company to dock and offload consignment at the port. The arrival of such large vessels is a major achievement to be recorded by the Tanzania Ports Authority, he noted.

16 Jan 2015

Japan Lends Kenya $270m to Help Expand Mombasa Port

Kenya signed a $270 million loan deal with Japan on Friday to help expand capacity at Mombasa port, a busy facility that is the main trade gateway to east Africa. The port handles fuel, consumer goods and other imports for Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia, as well as regional tea and coffee exports. Container traffic through the port reached about one million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2014, up 11.9 percent on a year earlier. The port management said it expected a 30 percent increase to 1.3 million TEUs in 2015. Officials said the loan would support the purchase of cargo handling equipment, help finance a brand new container terminal and aid construction of another terminal already being built.

01 Oct 2014

Port City Plans for New Cargo Taxes Angers Kenya Govt, Shippers

Proposals by a local authority to impose new taxes on cargo at Kenya's main port has drawn opposition from the government and shippers, saying it will hike import prices and make the east African trade hub less competitive. The government, keen to see off emerging competition from regional rivals, has been striving to improve efficiency at Mombasa port, the congested gateway that serves Kenya and landlocked states such as South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda. Customs reforms and other steps have cut transit times and costs, but government officials and shippers say such gains could be undermined if the local authority succeeds in imposing extra taxes using revenue-raising and other powers granted to Kenya's regions under a 2010 constitution.

12 Sep 2014

Tanzania Receives $565m to Expand Port

Tanzania signed a $565 million deal on Friday with the World Bank and other development partners to expand its main port of Dar es Salaam, part of plans to boost the east African nation's role as a regional trade hub. Tanzania wants to lift capacity to 28 million tonnes a year by 2020 from the 14.6 million tonnes it handled in the financial year 2013/14. The World Bank said in May that inefficiencies at the port cost Tanzania and neighbours up to $2.6 billion a year. The port, whose main rival is the bigger but also congested port of Mombasa in Kenya, acts as a trade gateway for landlocked states such as Zambia, Rwanda, Malawi, Burundi and Uganda, as well as the eastern region of Democratic Republic of the Congo.

14 Nov 2006

Slow Discharge Strands Tankers

Seven tankers carrying some 210,000 tons of petroleum products have been stranded outside the Dar es Salaam Port due to its slow discharging process, according to local press reports on Monday. These seven oil tankers arrived in Dar es Salaam in the third week of last month. Flow meters, installed at the port to curb tax evasion, are discharging oil from tankers at a rate of 500 tons per hour instead of 750 tons per hour. Local oil importers are fearing that retail prices of petrol and diesel might go up due to accumulated demurrage charges at the port. Earlier last month, car importers in Tanzania also complained about the handling capability of the Dar es Salaam Port that delayed the unloading of more than 1,000 motor vehicles from a roll-on/roll-off car carrier.