CHAIRMAN: DR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: DR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

Views /Editorial

Growing maritime trade

Published: 21 May 2018 - 08:24 am | Last Updated: 22 Jun 2025 - 09:59 am

Hamad Port continues to make the country proud by achieving new milestones. The Port, which is one of the largest port in the region, accomplished another feat last month as it received highest number of vessels in April.

A total of 148 commercial vessels called at Hamad Port which is the highest monthly number ever recorded since the start of operations at the port.  

Additionally, QTerminals handled a record-breaking 122,825 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) containers in April which is a 17 percent increase over the previous month.

Qterminals was set up by Qatar Navigation (Milaha) and Qatar Ports Management Company (Mwani Qatar) to manage the port.

The $7.4bn Port remains unfazed by the unjust siege imposed by the blockading countries on Qatar as number vessels calling at the port and volume of goods has been grown consistently since start of its operation. The progress made at Hamad Port since its opening in December 2016 is substantial.

Within 14 months since the start of operations, Port’s monthly volumes grew from an average of just over 41,000 TEUs per month to 105,000 TEUs per month.

This increase is driven by its ongoing efforts to maintain the highest levels of productivity and service delivery without compromising on safety and quality. Being a new development, Hamad Port has invested in and uses the latest and most technologically advanced equipment, Terminal Operating Systems (TOS), facilities and services

The Port, in March this year, celebrated the handling of its first one million TEUs containers and 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.

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 the 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.

Hamad Port aims to capture 35 percent of the trade in the Middle East in the next two years. Given the fast pace of its progress and it can be inferred that it can easily achieve this feat.