Qatar’s maritime sector has wrapped up a successful year by setting new volume and productivity benchmarks in 2019. Hamad Port, Ruwais Port and Doha Port received 4,082 vessels and handled 1.34 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) containers during the year.
“Our ports’ performance in December 2019 ended on a positive note and Mwani Qatar looks forward to 2020 focusing on the projected 2.5 percent increase in Qatar’s economic growth,” said Qatar Ports Management Company (Mwani Qatar) in a tweet.
Mwani Qatar said Hamad Port, Ruwais Port and Doha Port handled 108,546 TEUs containers, 40,836 tonnes general cargo, 63,010 livestock heads, 18,081 tonnes building materials and 6,238 units of vehicles during last month. The ports had handled 63,413 tonnes of general cargo; 8,467 units of vehicles and 62,260 livestock heads in November last year.
The container traffic at Hamad Port, Ruwais Port and Doha Port had crossed 1.2 million mark during Janua ry- November this year.
Qatar’s maritime sector is expected to witness another year of strong growth as various steps have been taken by the concerned authorities to boost goods traffic at the ports. One of the major steps include expansions of Hamad Port.
The development works of Phase II of the Hamad Port, which consist of second container terminal (CT-2), has already begun. As part of the development of CT-2, QTerminals announced last month that it had placed an order for 24 Terminal Trailers.
Mwani Qatar had also signed a container services agreement in November last year, with the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) to use Hamad Port as a regional hub to manage transshipments for up to 150,000 TEUs per year, growing to one million TEUs by 2023.
The agreement will play important role in transforming Qatar into a vibrant regional trading hub in the region. The agreement will also help in attracting more trans-shipment containers and encourage more international shipping lines to add Hamad Port to their regional routes and sign similar agreements in the future.
Hamad Port, one of the largest ports in the Middle East, has led from the front in boosting Qatar maritime sector as it occupied the lion’s share in the overall port traffic.
Mwani Qatar has inked agreements with a number of local, regional and international players to strengthen Hamad Port’s status in the region. Hamad Port is already making a paradigm shift in Qatar’s economic diversification and competitiveness, import and re-export of goods.