Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) says the twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEUs) for its principal port has grown by 8.9% a year. 

TEUs are used to measure a ship’s cargo carrying capacity. The dimensions of one TEU are equal to that of a standard 20 shipping container: 20 feet long, 8 feet tall.

This has been said by the TPA Acting Director General, Awadh Massawe when he met with Editors from various media houses in Dar es Salaam last week.

Massawe said the consignment of containers being handled by the Dar es Salaam Port grows to 612,551 containers in 2013/2014 compared to 435,899 containers in 2009/2010.

He said the development comes following a move by TPA to improve cargo clearance process to facilitate quick cargo off-take from the port.

“The harmonization of working hours with other stakeholders (all 24/7) together with the deterioration of ship turnaround time, have also boost TPA performance,” he said. 

Ship turnaround time and waiting time has deteriorated from 4.9 to 5.2 days and from 1.7 days to 2.3 days in 2013/14 respectively, Massawe told East African Business Week last week.

He added that the average container dwell time has also improved from 9.8 days as compared to 9.4 days in 2013/14. In another development, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Investment and Empowerment), Dr Mary Nagu said Dar port handled 14.26 million tonnes of cargo during fiscal year 2013/2014.

And thus surpassing the target of 13 million tonnes set for the year and 12 million tonnes that were handled in the previous year, Minister Nagu told Member of Parliaments.

She attributed the achievement to implementation of the Big Results Now (BRN) initiative, which has been implemented during the past one year.

Through BRN, the government identified six key results areas to boost the economy as the country geared itself to attaining a middle income economy by the year 2025 through the Tanzania Development Vision 2025.

“There have been impressive achievements since the introduction of BRN initiative. Change of mindsets among public servants is among the attainments,” she noted.

We now have in place an institutional framework for implementation of the initiative,” she said. Dr Nagu made the remarks in response to a basic question by Masasi MP Maryam Kasembe (CCM), who had tasked the government to explain the achievements and challenges faced in implementation of the scheme.

“Apart from the improvements at the port, the government has also revamped passenger and cargo transport on the central railway network by refurbishing the railway line and locomotives,” she explained.

DSM port serves a big hinterland consisting of Tanzania and six non-coastal countries (Zambia, Malawi, DR Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda).

The port is connected by road and two railway systems of different gauge as transit traffic contributes 30% of the cargo traffic handled by the port. The two railway lines, Tazara and Tanzania Railway Line.