Container Freight Station Services (CFS)

At Mitchell Cotts Group, we have an established three Container Freight Stations (CFS) that are gazetted and fully licensed dry port. We have BP2 inside Mombasa port, the second one which is Mitchell Cotts Freight (K) Limited CFS is located in the Shimanzi area and the third one is Mitchell Cotts ICD located in Kibarani along the Makupa causeway.

The different Container Freight Stations cater to different things and have differing capacities:

• BP2 is adjacent to conventional cargo berths no. 3 and 4.
• Mitchell Cotts Freight (K) Limited CFS has ground slots 353 TEUs, Statistic Capacity 1,412 TEUs and Annual Throughput 50,832 TEUs.
• Mitchell Cotts ICD has Ground Slots 1,280 TEUs, Statistic Capacity 5,120 TEUs and Annual Throughput 184,320 TEUs

We can handle full container loads (FCL) and less than container load (LCL),RORO units and packaged cargo that are transferred directly from the Kilindini seaport to our Container Freight Station. The Kenya Ports Authority Container Terminal clears all Full Container Loads and they are immediately transferred to our Container Freight Station Services (CFS) that is located 500 meters away from the Kenya Ports Authority Gate B.

The Importer (Consignee) in the contract of sale should instruct the shipper (Supplier) to insert the following remark on their shipping instructions, Final destination: Shimanzi (MIT), ICD Kibarani (MCF) or BP2 (MT 2).

The shipper upon handing over the cargo to the shipping line will be requested by the shipping agent at the port of loading to confirm the details of the Bill of Lading before the agent prints the final Bill of Lading whose details are used to prepare the ship’s manifest.

At this point the shipper should ensure that the destination instructions for example are as follows:

• Port of Loading: Antwerp, Hamburg etc.
• Port of Discharge: Mombasa
• Final Destination: Mitchell Cotts C.F.S.

With the above details the ship’s manifest will distinguish those containers or cargoes that are for onward carriage to other inland stations such as I.C.D.E. Nairobi and Mitchell Cotts C.F.S. The shipping line’s manifest lodged with the Kenya Ports Authority Operations Department is the document used in planning discharge of the vessel. All containers consigned to Mitchell Cotts C.F.S. will be offloaded directly from the vessel and transported to the C.F.S.

In the event that the goods have already been shipped and the Final Destination on the Bill of Lading has not been specified, The Importer (Consignee) can instruct the local shipping agent of the carrier vessel in writing to amend the ship’s manifest before lodging it with the Kenya Ports Authority.

The written instructions to the shipping line should be copied to Mitchell Cotts Freight in order for them to follow up the insertion in the manifest lodged with Kenya Ports Authority. It is very important to have the instructions given to the local shipping agent before the vessel arrives as this will save delays in amending the Final destination to the intended one.

Our CFS facility has an open yard of 120,000sqm and covered warehouses of 125,000 sq.ft. Security is something that we take seriously and that is why our facility is enclosed by a brick perimeter wall secured with an electric fence and motion sensors connected to an alarm system supported by back up response situated approximately meters from the complex. We have overhead halogen lamps that light up the whole compound that is secured all day and night by guards. We also have dog surveillance for the night time.