Find Freight, Shipping and Logistics expertise in United Republic of Tanzania

Freight and carriage services are available to, from and within Tanzania via land, sea and air.

The European Commission estimates that in 2010 the total value of Tanzania’s imports was €6.1 billion which consist principally of consumer goods, machinery and transportation equipment, and raw industrial materials from EU, China and India. Tanzania’s exports were worth €1.8 billion in the same year and went to the same trade partners, China, India and EU. The principal export goods are gold, coffee, cashew nuts, manufactured goods and cotton.

The Tanzania Freight Forwarders Association is the industry body and the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority regulates postal and courier services. Global companies DHL and TNT operate in the country and Fedex and UPS Airfreight find local representatives in Pax Couriers and Freight in Time Group respectively.

The World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI) scores countries on various aspects involved with shipping and logistics on a scale of one to five with five being the highest. Tanzania ranks in the top 100 out of 155 countries in terms of shipment (59th), tracking (77th), timeliness (99th) and logistics (94th). It ranks lower in customs (130th) and infrastructure (105th).

The transport infrastructure in Tanzania is developing; there are 3,689 km of railway in the country and 91,049km of roadway of which 6,578 km is paved.

Freight via inland waterways is an important element in international freighting within the region with Lake Tanganyika, Lake Victoria and Lake Malawi providing prominent commercial avenues between Tanzania and neighbouring countries. In total there are 43 lake ports 12 of which including Mwanza and Kigoma ports, are considered large.

The principal sea port in the country is Dar es Salaam which has 11 deep-water berths and handles 95% of Tanzania’s international trade. It is also an important point of access to the sea for landlocked countries in the region such as Malawi, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. Tanga Port has two shallow water berths and Mtwara Port has capacity for six vessels. The country is serviced by over 90 merchant marine vessels including bulk carriers, chemical tankers, cargo ships and roll on / roll off vessels. The Tanzania Ports Authority is responsible for overseeing all lake and sea ports in the country.

The World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI) scores countries on various aspects involved with shipping and logistics on a scale of one to five with five being the highest. Tanzania’s LPI score (2012) is 2.65 which places it above the average for both the sub-Saharan region (2.46) and low income countries (2.37) and in 88th place in the world out of 155 countries.