Mombasa-based Southern Engineering Co. Ltd (Seco) has assembled two cargo vessels for the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA), with capacity to handle 2,000 tonnes of dry cargo or 72 twenty-foot containers (Teus).
The barges Hapa Kazi Tu 01 and Hapa Kazi Tu 02, have been tested and certified to operate, marking a milestone in shipbuilding for the country.
Seco has also secured another contract from TPA to construct and deliver three pilot boats this year.
Seco shipyard general manager Sanjiv Nair said MV Hapa Kazi Tu 01 was completed on July 31, 2019 and both vessels are scheduled for delivery mid this month.
“The vessels will operate around Tanga port and the surrounding coastal waters,” said Mr Nair.
He added, “With local assembly, it is easier to provide after sales management at the facility’s dry dock. Local assembly also creates the growth of the needed technology, create a human resource of technical support and create more jobs with a huge economic spillover.”
Completion of the two vessels brings the number of such vessels built at Seco shipyard to five, in less than a decade, after the Uganda government contracted Seco to build four vessels in 2012.
The four vessels built for Uganda include MV Albert Nile 1 which is a roll-on roll-off (RoRo) modular ferry specially designed to safely transport passengers and vehicles across Lake Albert in Uganda.
The others were three passenger ferries, MV Bisina, MV Obongi and MV Laropi, which are modular passenger ferries plying the Okokorio and Agule route, the Sinyanya channel and Umi route respectively.
Seco was established in 1957 to offer marine engineering services and has shipbuilding and dry-dock facilities at the Kilindini wharf in Mombasa.
Maritime players in Kenya have been calling on the government to support investors exploring shipbuilding as part of the blue economy agenda and as a step towards having locally built vessels calling at our ports. This, they argue is a sure way of having a piece of the global shipping business.
Kenya last April contracted Dutch firm, Damen Group, as the main project contractor of a modern shipyard facility at the Kenya Navy Mtongwe base. Completion is projected for July next year.
