Taiwan's Evergreen Line is the latest global shipping line to show interest in the Port of Mombasa, The Star reported. Evergreen President K.H. Wu visited Mombasa this week with a company delegation. Bahaa Badr, chairman of the line's agent Gulf Badr, also joined the visit. They discussed port infrastructure, operational capacity and the outlook for maritime trade.
Evergreen is investing in a new generation of vessels. They include ultra-large ships that can carry 24,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). Mombasa is among the line's major destinations in the Indian Ocean. Evergreen has ordered 23 feeder and medium-sized container ships and 11 LNG dual-fuel mega vessels. It operates about 244 container ships with a combined capacity of 2.06 million TEUs. That is about 5.9 per cent of global capacity.
Sudi Mwasinago, KPA General Manager for Cargo Operations, represented KPA chief executive William Ruto at the talks. He outlined the authority's expansion plans, including the imminent completion of Berth 19B. The berth is expected to add about 300,000 TEUs to Mombasa's annual container capacity. Planned work at Berths 23 and 24 will add more. Mwasinago said Mombasa remains the main gateway for Kenya and the Northern Corridor. He said the Port of Lamu offers extra capacity and a longer-term platform for regional trade, mainly transshipment.
KPA projects that its ports will handle a combined 168 million metric tonnes of cargo a year by 2045. Mombasa handled 45.45 million tonnes in 2025. Last week, French shipping giant CMA CGM launched a dedicated rail freight service. It links Kilindini harbour to Nairobi's Embakasi Inland Container Depot.
The expansion comes as Tanzania draws more cargo through Dar es Salaam. A report by the State Department for East African Community Affairs found that Kenya loses five to eight per cent of its high-value transit cargo every year. The report partly blamed inefficiencies and non-tariff barriers along the Northern Corridor. The 1,700-kilometre corridor links Mombasa to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and eastern DR Congo. It handles more than 35.84 million metric tonnes of cargo a year and over 80 per cent of Kenya's transit trade.
EAC Affairs Principal Secretary Caroline Karugu said the government has committed to cutting roadblocks to fewer than five gazetted stops. It also plans to cut Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System response times from four to six hours to under one hour. Transit times would return to 36-48 hours. Halving delays is estimated to save transporters $288 (Sh37,172) to $360 (Sh46,465) per trip. Removing delay-related barriers altogether could save the country $43 million (Sh5.6 billion) to $54 million (Sh6.9 billion) a year.