Port of Dar es Salaam

The Port of Dar es Salaam is Tanzania's principal port and one of East Africa's most important, on the Indian Ocean coast. It handles the bulk of Tanzania's seaborne trade and, crucially, serves as the gateway for the Central Corridor — the transport route carrying imports and exports to and from landlocked neighbours including Zambia, the DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi and Uganda.

Because so much regional transit trade depends on it, Dar es Salaam's capacity, efficiency and inland connectivity (by road, and the rail corridors including the new Standard Gauge Railway) are important not just to Tanzania but to a wide swathe of East and Central Africa. It competes with Kenya's Mombasa (Northern Corridor) for regional gateway traffic, and its throughput and transit arrangements affect the cost of trade across the region. For shippers trading with Tanzania or the Central Corridor hinterland, Dar es Salaam is typically the key port of loading or discharge. Understanding it is central to planning East African trade. It is a major maritime gateway of East and Central Africa.