Country desk
Berbera on the Gulf of Aden and Mogadishu on the Indian Ocean are two very different ports under different administrations. Berbera is growing as a corridor port for Ethiopia; Mogadishu serves southern Somalia under a defined security regime.
Maingate Shipping Limited coordinates ship agency across Somalia and Somaliland for owners, charterers, managers, traders and lines. The trade through Somali ports is rice, sugar, flour, cement and fuel inbound; livestock, sesame and hides outbound. Ethiopia's eastern regions use the Berbera corridor.
Formalities: the Somaliland Ports Authority at Berbera and the federal port management at Mogadishu. The desk works with them on every call and keeps the principal clear of the detail unless the detail matters.
Operational note for Somalia and Somaliland: crew movement, cash handling and vessel access follow security procedures that are confirmed for every call.
Each port has its own desk with the terminals, the cargo and the services a call needs.
Somalia and Somaliland's ports are Berbera, Mogadishu. Berbera handles containers and general cargo for the Berbera corridor, cement, fuel and foodstuffs inbound, with livestock to the Gulf outbound through the DP World container terminal with its extended quay, the livestock export berths and the oil jetty. Mogadishu handles rice, sugar, wheat flour, cement and fuel inbound, with livestock and sesame outbound through the container and general cargo berths under the current port management, plus the anchorage used when berths are occupied.
Calls at each port are attended by our partner agent there under Maingate's instruction, with the Mombasa desk issuing the proforma DA, tracking the call and closing the account.
Ethiopia's eastern regions use the Berbera corridor. Corridor cargo means transit bonds, delivery orders, rail or road evacuation and receivers who are far from the quay. The desk coordinates the clearing agents and the transport so that discharge is not held by paperwork and the cargo's documents follow it inland.
Where a cargo is split between Somali ports or between Somalia and Somaliland and a neighbouring country, the sequence is planned as one voyage with one file.
Formalities in Somalia and Somaliland run through the bodies that govern the ports: the Somaliland Ports Authority at Berbera and the federal port management at Mogadishu. The desk knows their forms, their hours and their cut-offs, files ahead of ETA and keeps the vessel's documents ready for inspection.
The principal sees the result as a pre-arrival confirmation, daily reports and a departure report, not as a pile of forms.
Crew movement, cash handling and vessel access follow security procedures that are confirmed for every call. Crew changes, bunkers, spares, cash to master and medical cases are handled at the port that suits the itinerary, and the desk tells the principal at nomination which port that is.
Owners whose charterers appoint the cargo agent place these matters with the desk as protecting agent.
Berbera, Mogadishu, each with its own desk in this cluster. Smaller ports and anchorages are covered on request.
Our partner agent at each port, appointed and instructed by Maingate Shipping; the Mombasa desk coordinates and is responsible to the principal.
Yes. Multi-port itineraries are handled as one appointment with a separate DA per port on one account.
Yes, at each port according to its airport and immigration arrangements, described on the crew change desk for that port.
Send the vessel's particulars, ETA, port, cargo or purpose and the principal's details to the desk by email; a proforma DA follows promptly.
Receipts behind every line, a record behind every stoppage, a desk behind every call.
The Somalia and Somaliland desk connects to the port desks below and to the Africa agency line.
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Maingate Shipping Limited · Express Building, Moi Avenue, Mombasa, Kenya · ops@maingateshipping.com · +254 784 622 091