Isaka cargo volume surges 30pc in four months
SHINYANGA: Isaka Dry Port has registered 30 per cent cargo volume increase in the last four months thanks to the Uganda-Tanzania crude oil pipeline project.
The dry port in Kahama, Shinyanga saw the cargo volume rise to 8,000 metric tonnes per month registered recently from 6,000 tonnes in April.
The Dry Port Officer, Mr Abel Mshang’a, said at the just ended 2023 Mwanza East Africa Trade Fair (MEATF) exhibitions that oil pipeline was a blessing for the port and the volume is projected to increase further.
“We are also in talks with more new clients—local and international,” Mr Mshang’a told the `Daily News’ on Monday.
The port is eyeing a transport deal of some 10,000 tonnes of fertiliser to Burundi and also another firm that will bring in trench digging machines for the oil pipeline.
The East African Crude Oil Pipeline EACOP runs 1,443km from Kabaale, Hoima district in Uganda to the Chongoleani Peninsula near Tanga Port in Tanzania.
Eighty per cent of the pipeline is in Tanzania. It is a buried thermally insulated 24 inches pipeline along with six pumping stations—two in Uganda and four in Tanzania—ending at Tanga with a Terminal and Jetty
One of the largest users of the Isaka Dry Port and strategic suppliers of the EACOP project is Italian-based WASCO-ISOAF, which has moved 57 containers in the last four months.
Under the EACOP project agreement, WASCO-ISOAF will provide engineering, managerial and procurement services in Italy while production will be carried out by its subsidiary WASCO ISOAF Tanzania in the country.
Mr Mshang’a said some EAPOC suppliers and contractors picked Isaka Dry Port due to security assurance for their cargoes, and low transport costs compared to other countries’ routes.
“Isaka is expecting further increase of the cargo volume to at least 10, 000 tonnes, on a monthly basis, when the two new clients start using the port,” he said.
The Port Officer is also banks hopes on cargo volume increase after the completion of the standard gauge railways.
“Already, many investors in various sectors, especially, fuel transporters have shown an interest in using the port,” he said.
Isaka Port occupies 11.4 hectares of land and has the capacity to serve some 300 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
The port good shed has the capacity to accommodate 3,000 tonnes as well as ramps to serve about 22 cargo wagons at once.
Security is fully guaranteed, a factor that has been attracting transporters from Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda to use the port as of now,” he said.
The port provides transport and distribution services to neighbouring land-linked countries such as Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.
