Drop in shipping costs from China to benefit East African consumers

Published: February 24,2022

Data from the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) shows the Mombasa port’s overall throughput was 34.44 million tonnes in 2019 compared to 30.92 million the previous year. /Kenya Ports Authority

Declining shipping costs between China and the Kenyan port of Mombasa is set to benefit east African consumers, the Kenyan industry said on Tuesday.

Gilbert Langat, CEO of the Shippers Council of Eastern Africa told journalists in Nairobi that there has been a shortage of shipping vessels and containers for the past 18 months plying between China and the East African coast.

“We expect the cost of shipping between China and Mombasa to come down by as much as 35 percent from March as there is now much more available shipping capacity,” Langat said on the sidelines of the launch of Manufacturing Manifesto 2022-2027 by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers.

Langat observed that during the height of the COVID-19 travel restrictions, Kenya relied on smaller shipping vessels from China to satisfy import demand.

According to the regional shipper lobby, the ongoing economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic has released a lot of containers and ships into the global market.

Langat observed that the China to East African shipping route is now being serviced by bigger vessels resulting in a lower cost of transport products.

He added that economic activities have also resumed in China after the end of the Chinese New Year festivities which will translate into more supply of products to the east African region.

Xinhua