The Kenya Ports Authority has reduced the container handling charges in the latest push by the Government to upgrade the uptake of cargo through the new Standard Gauge Railway service.
This comes in the midst of a row with freighters who have gone against an order for them to use the new service instead of using road transport to ferry cargo from the port of Mombasa.
KPA on Tuesday announced that it had cut short the container handling charges at its internal depot at Embakasi in Nairobi by almost a third. In a notice published in the local dailies, the ports agency mentioned that it had lowered the handling fees for a 20-foot local container at the Inland Container Depot at Embakasi to $80 (Sh8,160), down from $103 (Sh10,506).
Earlier, the Government had set the price of transporting a 20-foot container from Mombasa to Nairobi at $500 (Sh50, 000), excluding the handling charges which means that the total cost of moving the container from the Mombasa port using the SGR cargo service to the inland depot at Embakasi will now amount to Sh59,160 ($580).
“In order to promote the use of Inland Container Depot Nairobi (ICDN) by Nairobi and transit clients who wish to nominate ICDN as a point of cargo delivery, Kenya Ports Authority has given a rebate on tariffs,” said KPA in the press advertisement.
Handling charges for a 40-feet container in transit to another country, on the other hand, have been slashed from $125 (Sh12, 750) to $90 (Sh9, 180).