Dar es Salaam and Central Coast Sea Ports
Dar es Salaam port is the Tanzania principal port with a rated capacity of 4.1 million (dwt) dry cargo and 6.0 million (dwt) bulk liquid cargo. The Port has a total quay length of about 2,600 metres with eleven deep-water berths. Dar es Salaam port handles about 95% of the Tanzania international trade. The port serves the landlocked countries of Malawi, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. The port is strategically placed to serve as a convenient freight linkage not only to and from East and Central Africa countries but also to middle and Far East, Europe, Australia and America.
Port Facilities:
Facilities available to support operations of Dar es salaam port are: -
- General cargo Berth (1-7) from break bulk, PORO and dry bulk.
- Container Terminal Berths (Berth 8-11), leased to Tanzania International Container Terminal services Ltd (TICTS).
- Grain Terminal facility (silos with storage capacity of 30,000 tons). Inland Container Deposits (ICDs) facilities with the capacity of (14,500 TEUs) and CFs with the capacity of holding 6,000 vehicles at once).
- A 150,000 MT Single Point Mooring (SPM) – for handling refined and crude oil.
- Kurasini oil Jetty (KOJ) for handling refined products (tanker size 45,000MT for KOJ1 and 5,000 tons for KOJ2).
Generally, the intrinsic capacity of the port of Dar es salaam is to handle more than 10 million tons of cargo as follows: -
- General cargo 3.1 million tons.
- Container 9,619,876 TEUs) 1.0 million tonnes; and
- Liquid bulk 6.0 million tons.
Port Features
With the quay length of 2,600 meters, it is divided into:
General Cargo Terminal
This is a break-bulk section of a port with a quay of 1,478 meters comprising of 7 main quays, transit sheds with 64,463.5 of total floor sq. meters and open storage of 201,613.
Container Terminal
This terminal is operated by a private company, the Tanzania International Container Terminal Services (TICTS). TICTS manage the container handling activities at berth Number 8-11. The terminal has a total quay length of 540 meters. Back up facilities of container terminal includes the container depot located about 2 kilometers away at kurasini (KICD) and Ubungo container Depot.
Grain Terminal
Dar es salaam Port has fully automated grain handling facility with silos with the capacity of 30,000 metric tons. Grains can be discharged and bagged along the quay at an average of more than 2000 tons in 24 hours, or transferred to silo using dump trucks. The grain terminal has concrete silos, fumigation, aeration and temperature control facilities.
Oil Terminal
There are two oil terminal, the single point Mooring (SPM) and Kurasini Oil Jetty (KOJ). The SPM is an offshore tanker berth for handling exclusively crude and refined oil. It has capacity to accommodate tankers of up to 150,000 deadweight tons with fast discharge speed (flow rate of 2,500 cubic meters per hour for crude oil). SPM is connected to refineries in Dar es salaam and Ndola, Zambia through floating hoses and submarines pipes. KOJ is the tanker jetty for handling refined oil products with pumping capacity of 750 tons per hour. It can handle tankers up to 45,000 deadweights.
Storage Areas
The port provides both open and covered storage; it has silos for grains at any time of need and maintains storage yards for containers, motors vehicles and general cargo.
Marine crafts/navigation Aids
The port is served with berthing tugs, pilots boats mooring boats and surveillance / patrol boat, water barge, and floating cranes. Moreover, there are navigation aids to facilitate movement of vessels in the port. These include; buoys, beacons, leading marks and light house.
Container Handling Equipment
Port terminals operates with Panamax Ship to Shore Gantry cranes (SSGs), Rubber Tyred Gantry cranes (RTGs) and Rail Mounted Gentry Crane (RMG), Gottwalds, highway trucks , folk lift trucks, Highway trailers, Terminal tractors and Trailers.
General Cargo Handling Equipment.
The major equipment for handling general cargo are portal cranes, forklifts, tractors, trailers, grabs, hoppers, Bigging units, dump trucks, weighbridges, and conveyor belts
Major Port Development Projects
Upgrading of Dar es Salaam Port Berths 1-7
Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) is implementing a number of major projects as outlined in the National Ports Master Plan (PMP) study undertaken by Royal Haskoning in February 2009. The study laid out long term strategy for Tanzanian Ports to create capacity for the expected demand. One of such projects is the Dar es Salaam Maritime Gateway Project (DMGP).
DMGP will improve the effectiveness and efficiency by converting the port as world class port with optimized efficiency to accommodate the calling and reception of larger vessels.
Port modernization projects include but not limited to strengthening and deepening of berths 1-7 and RORO terminal, dredging of entrance channel, turning circle and harbour basin, strengthening and deepening 8-11, and construction of a new terminal jet.Modernization of operations for handling dry bulk cargo
Under the same project, TPA will modernize operations of handling dry bulk cargo by applying state of art conveyance technology.The Development of Dry/ Floating dock facility.
A modern operational dock facility for maintenance and repair of marine crafts will facilitate an optimal level of equipment availability of such crafts, hence enhance port operational efficiency.
www.ports.go.tz
