TICTS increased investment boosts efficiency

Tanzania International Container Terminal Services has broken its own record after achieving 50 crane moves per hour over three times more than what was achieved a year ago.

The record-breaking event followed the MV Clemens Shulte, 5500 teu container vessel call on the Dar es Salaam Port last week.

The ship, operates by world’s largest shipping company, Maersk Line, is the longest ever to dock at the port, measured at 255 metres.

The TICTS Chief Executive Officer, Mr Paul Wallace, said the achievement followed continued investment of state-of-the-art equipment.

'We are reducing the waiting times of ships at anchor and turning around much faster, which means our port is becoming very efficient and able to handle double-digit growth in trade,' Mr Wallace said.

This is testament to continued investment from their shareholders in new equipment and processes, the CEO said.

Mr Wallace said, 'The business is changing quickly and we need to offer deeper berths with longer quay length and larger cranes.'

According to the CEO global trade is increasing and there was need to ensure that TICTS was fit to compete in a highly competitive environment, where vessels` scale is getting progressively larger and tonnage being cascaded from the major Asia trades to Africa.

'We are seeing fewer but larger vessels with more containers,' Mr Wallace said. TICTS now claims to handle almost 80 per cent of all container throughputs for Tanzania.

It is also actively taking trade away from neighbouring East African ports. Dar port is fast becoming one of the most efficient gateways to both Tanzania and those land-locked countries who rely on the port as their primary window to global trade.

The new TICTS is moving quickly and keen to invest and expand its footprint and take on additional new berths at Dar port. 'Let us invest private money to develop the port, Tanzanian money would be better spent on health and education,' suggested Wallace.

Last week`s maiden call of the largest container vessel ever to visit Tanzania gave the opportunity for TICTS to achieve much higher levels in operational performance.

TICTS last year expected to handle around 500,000 twenty-foot equivalent units in traffic while its container volume growth of around five to seven per cent was experienced in the last few years.

SOURCE: DAILY NEWS

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