Qatar’s ports have maintained growth momentum in August in spite of challenges posed by due to COVID-19 pandemic. Hamad Port, Ruwais Port and Doha Port have registered an increase in cargo handling in August. The movement of vehicles witnessed a rise of around 18 percent last month as 4,091 were handled by the ports in August, compared to 3,469 vehicles in July this year.
Container volumes also grew last month. “Container volumes moving through Mwani Qatar increased by approximately 4 percent in August 2020 compared to the same period of last year,” said Mwani Qatar on its official Twitter account. The ports handled 113,795 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) containers; 51,450 tonnes of general cargo and 27,883 tonnes of building material in August. A total of 263 ships docked at the ports last month, according to data shared by Mwani Qatar on its twitter account.
The ports have delivered a strong performance so far this year, demonstrating that the ports are playing a vital role in ensuring a smooth supply of goods in these exceptional circumstances. During the first six months of this year, Hamad Port, Ruwais Port and Doha Port have registered a 102 percent increase in general cargo handling compared to the same period last year. The ports have remained busy in the first half of this year as 1,509 ships docked at Hamad Port, Doha Port and Ruwais Port during the January-June period
The ports handled 727,716 tonnes of general cargo in the first six months of this year, compared to 360,644 tonnes in the same period in 2019. The ports handled 32,779 units of vehicles and 305,504 livestock during the January-June period. Hamad Port, Qatar’s gateway to world trade, occupied a major share in the total cargo handling.
Hamad Port is helping in diversifying the country’s economy. Along with general cargo traffic, the port handles a variety of specialist imports including livestock, automobiles, and bulk grain. Mwani Qatar has implemented a series of measures to limit the spread of coronavirus in the ports which has not only kept the workforce safe but has also ensured an uninterrupted supply of goods in the country.
The ports had set the new volume and productivity benchmarks in 2019. Hamad Port, Ruwais Port and Doha Port received 4,082 vessels and handled 1.34 million TEUs containers during the year.
