Qatar’s maritime sector continues to post strong performance as ports in the country have registered robust growth in cargo traffic in February. Hamad Port, Doha Port and Ruwais Port handled 83,091 tonnes of general cargo last month compared to 46,764 in January, reflecting 78 percent monthly increase.
These ports handled 101,104 heads of livestock in February against 71,896 heads, a month before, registering a growth of around 41 percent. Total 332 vessels called at these three ports in February, according to Mwani Qatar data.
The movement building materials was also strong as the ports handled 36,014 tonnes of such materials in February, against 30,693 tonnes of building materials in January, registering a rise of 17 percent. The ports handled 99,777 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEU) containers, and 5,443 vehicles in February.
Hamad Port, one of the largest in the region, was a major driver of growth for country’s maritime sector as it had major share in total cargo movement. In February, 131 vessels called at Hamad Port delivering 99,481 TEU containers, 75,643 tonnes of break bulk cargo, 80,311 heads of cattle and 5317 vehicles.
Hamad Port witnessed huge rise in vessel and cargo movement in 2018 and achieved several milestones. According to Qterminals, Hamad Port handled around 1.33 million TEU containers, over 1 million tonnes of break bulk cargo, over 255,000 of bulk cargo, over 68,000 vehicles and over 400,000 heads of livestock during January to December in 2018.
In 2017, these ports handled 1.26m tonnes of general cargo, 772,835 TEUs containers, 857,429 cattle heads and 578,654 tonnes of aggregates and 3,869 vessels. The positive momentum in the country’s maritime trade will get stronger in the ongoing year as Qatar has opened new trade routes and has diversified its source of supply. After the unjust siege, the authorities took several initiatives to strengthen maritime trade and ensure smooth supply of goods for residents.
The $7.4bn Port has remained unfazed by the unjust siege imposed by the blockading countries on Qatar as the number of vessels calling at the port and volume of goods has been grown consistently since start of its operation. Mwani Qatar in cooperation with partners has inaugurated a number of new direct shipping lines between Hamad Port and other ports in the region and beyond.
Qterminals was set up by Qatar Navigation (Milaha) and Qatar Ports Management Company (Mwani Qatar) to manage the port.
