Container traffic through Mombasa, Kenya's biggest port, increased by 2.4 percent in 2016 after the opening of a new section of the port's second container terminal, port management said on Friday.
The biggest port in East Africa and the region's trade gateway, handles imports of fuel and consumer goods and exports of tea and coffee from landlocked neighbours like Uganda and South Sudan and its traffic flows serve as a barometer of economic activity in the region.
Catherine Mturi, the head of the port, said it handled 27.36 million tonnes of cargo between January and December 2016, up from 26.73 million tonnes handled during a similar period in 2015.
Mturi said in the statement that of the 27.36 million tonnes, over 6 million tonnes was freight moving to and from Uganda, which accounted for 81.9 percent of all transit traffic.
The second container terminal, which is 900 metres long with three docking berths, was opened in April 2016, and provides an additional cargo-handling capacity of 550,000 TEUs per year.