File picture used for representation.
DOHA: Hamad Port, one of the largest ports in the region, is set to play a major role in maritime trade by becoming a transhipment hub in the region. By becoming a transhipment hub, the $7.4bn port will be able to serve the business and trade of the neighbouring countries.
“The opportunity in Hamad Port for transhipment is significant,” Neville Bissett, Chief Executive Officer, QTerminals, told The Peninsula. “What we want to do here is not just grow organically but also to look at how can we assist the upper Gulf region by bringing cargo here and then transhipping it,” he said.
By being a major transhipment centre, Hamad Port, which was opened in December 2016, can cater to the needs of businesses in neighbouring countries like Kuwait, Iraq and other neighbours. The port of Salalah in Oman is another transhipment centre in the region.
“There is plenty of opportunity for Hamad Port to grow, not just with gateway cargo but also with transhipment cargo,” he said.
Gateway cargo is cargo which lands in the port for use of local residents while transhipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then on to another destination.
“We are growing transhipment, and it’s not currently a big part of our business at the moment. We are talking with shipping lines and others about transhipping through Hamad Port. And that is where we see a lot of development possibilities, a lot of increase in throughput in Hamad Port. It is small at the moment but we have big ideas,” said Bissett.
The impact of blockade has been successfully absorbed by Hamad Port and the traffic at the port has grown sharply after the unjust blockade was imposed on Qatar.
“The traffic through Hamad Port has increased substantially since the middle of 2017. So, not only we have seen an increase of almost two-and-a-half times in the container traffic, we have seen similar increase in the bulk and the break bulk traffic and other traffic as well,” said the CEO.
“The average throughput during Jan-May of 2017 in the container terminal was about 40,000 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) a month, but afterwards in October, November, December of 2017 and January and February this year, we are looking at over 100,000 TEUs a month,” he added.
Hamad Port last week celebrated the handling of one million TEUs throughput. The $7.4bn port achieved this feat in less 14 months, which is well ahead of its expected schedule.
