Hamad Port, which has become Qatar’s gateway to world trade, continue to set new benchmark of performances with consistent increase in traffic of goods since it started operations last year. Its journey during the first half of the current year shows that the port has become a force to reckon with in the field of maritime trade.
The $7.4bn Hamad Port received 803 ships in the first six months of the current year.
The port handled 644,824 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) containers in January-June period while handled 631,076 break-bulk cargo in the same period. It handled 132,325 bulk cargo; 341,793 heads of cattle and 32,084 units of vehicles in the first six months of the current year.
The Port, one of the largest ports in the region, handled 137 vessels in June this year while 131 ships in May, said Qterminals in a tweet. Qterminals was set up by Qatar Navigation (Milaha) and Qatar Ports Management Company (Mwani Qatar) to manage the port.
The port accomplished another feat in early this year as it celebrated, in March, handling of its first one million TEUs containers. The Port, which was opened in December 2016, achieved this feat in less 14 months which was well ahead of its expected schedule. It plans to achieve the next one million container throughput by the end of this year.
Spread over 28.5 square kilometres, Hamad Port’s basin is 4km long, 700 metres wide and 17 metres deep — specifications that enable it to receive the world’s biggest ships. Hamad port is capable of handling 5,000 vessels per year and has a general cargo terminal that can handle 1.7 million tonnes of general goods per year.
Qatar’s maritime sector has proven its resilience as ports in Qatar have witnessed steep rise in the number of ships coming to Qatari waters since illegal blockade. The number of vessels coming to ports every month after siege has almost doubled, showing the strength Qatar’s growing maritime trade.
The Port has potential to transform Qatar into a regional and international trade and logistics hub. Hamad Port’s strategic geographical location offers opportunities to create cargo movement towards the upper Gulf, supporting countries such as Kuwait and Iraq, and south towards Oman.
As Hamad port continues to write new success stories, it is set to transform Qatar into a regional and international trade and logistics hub. Its growing role in the regional trade shows that it is further cementing Qatar’s position as a regional maritime hub.
