Tanzania International Container Terminal Services (TICTS), a unit of Hutchison Port Holdings, said on Friday it plans to move 373,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) this year, up from 337,547 in 2010.
TICTS, a private company that operates Dar es Salaam's container terminal, handled 325,557 TEUs in 2009.
"New shipping lines are showing interest in calling at Dar es Salaam and current shipping lines are also looking to increase the frequency of calls by adding vessels to their current east Africa rotation," the port operator's chief executive officer Neville Bissett said in a presentation to the government seen by Reuters.
The port operator said it had invested in additional cargo handling equipment and installed a new terminal operating system to improve efficiency at the port, which is struggling with traffic congestion.
Bissett said the port would improve to meet the future demands of Tanzania and its neighbouring land-linked countries and to place Dar es Salaam as the leading port in Africa.
Dar es Salaam port has a capacity to handle 3.1 million tonnes of general cargo.
In addition to Tanzania, the port handles cargo to and from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DCR), Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi and Burundi. (Reuters)
