Pemba, Mozambique
Port · MZPOL · -12.97°, 40.49° · Mineral Products, Metals, Vegetable Products
- in force · 60 nm
- 0
- issued · 30 d
- 0
- archive messages
- 5
- vessel calls / yr
- 83
About the port
The World Port Index lists Pemba as a very small coastal breakwater harbour with good shelter.
Listed depths: 23 m in the channel, 16 m at the anchorage and 6 m at the cargo pier, with a mean rise of tide of 3 m.
Entry can be restricted by other conditions.
Pilotage is compulsory.
Repair facilities are rated limited.
Pemba is a first port of entry.
PortWatch estimates 151 port calls at Pemba from Sep 2025 to Aug 2026, about 13 a month, 136% more than in the twelve months before.
By vessel type, general cargo ships 73%, tankers 17% and container ships 7% of those calls.
Estimated cargo over the same months: 89 thousand t imported and 293 thousand t exported.
The busiest month was Mar 2026 (18 calls) and the quietest Dec 2025 (7).
What is reported near this port
5 warnings in this archive have their reported position within 60 nm of Pemba, the earliest issued in 2001; the most common types are nav aids (5).
Distance is measured to each warning's reported point or area centre, so a warning near Pemba is not necessarily about the port; collection is incomplete between 2024-05 and 2026-08-17.
Port calls per month · IMF PortWatch estimates
Oct 2024 – Sep 2026 (last bar: month in progress) · last complete month Aug 2026: 16 calls, 14 thousand t in, 9 thousand t out
Warnings within 60 nm, by year of issue
In force within 60 nm · 0
Nothing in force within 60 nm right now.
Disruption events listing this port · IMF PortWatch
- CHIDO-25 · tropical cyclone · red alert · 2024-12-09 to 2024-12-16 — Hurricane (maximum wind speed of 243 km/h)
- KENNETH-19 · tropical cyclone · red alert · 2019-04-23 to 2019-04-25 — Hurricane/Typhoon > 74 mph (maximum wind speed of 231 km/h)
- Flood in Mozambique · flood · red alert · 2019-03-09 to 2019-03-29
PortWatch lists the ports inside each event's affected area; being listed does not mean the port was damaged or closed.
Port characteristics · World Port Index
- harbour
- very small coastal breakwater
- shelter
- good
- water body
- Mozambique Channel; Indian Ocean
- NAVAREA
- NAVAREA VII
- depths
- channel 23 m · anchorage 16 m · cargo pier 6 m
- mean rise of tide
- 3 m
- entrance restricted by
- other; not ice, swell, tide
- good holding ground
- yes
- pilotage
- advisable, compulsory
- tugs
- not assistance, salvage
- traffic and reporting
- ETA message required
- berthing
- wharves
- cranes
- fixed
- services
- longshore labour, medical; not dirty ballast reception, garbage disposal
- supplies
- diesel, fuel oil, water
- repairs
- limited
- first port of entry
- yes
- sailing directions
- Sailing Directions Pub. 171 (Enroute) - East Africa and the South Indian Ocean
- chart
- 61170
World Port Index entry Pemba (No. 46940), matched by UN/LOCODE. NGA Publication 150 (U.S. government work). The index describes the port as last surveyed for the publication; it is not a substitute for Sailing Directions or port authority information.
Share of Mozambique's maritime trade through this port (PortWatch): imports 0.8%, exports 0.7%.
Chokepoint and port data: IMF PortWatch (portwatch.imf.org) — IMF and the University of Oxford, via the UN Global Platform. Not for navigation — follow official NAVAREA / coastal broadcasts and port authority notices.