Qatar's Hamad, Doha and Al Ruwais ports have witnessed about five-fold expansion year-on-year in cargo handling in October 2021, reflecting the buoyancy in trade, according to the official statistics.
The general cargo handled through three ports stood at 181,073 tonnes in October 2021, which registered a 394% and 58.3% surge year-on-year and month-on-month respectively. On a cumulative basis, the general cargo through the three ports totalled 1.39mn tonnes during January-October this year, said the figures released by the Planning and Statistics Authority.
Hamad Port – whose multi-use terminal is designed to serve the supply chains for the RORO, grains and livestock – alone handled 102,125 freight tonnes of bulk and 75,467 freight tonnes of break-bulk in October this year.
The number of ships calling on Qatar's three ports stood at 288 in October 2021, which nevertheless declined 12.73% and 3.03% respectively on a yearly and monthly basis respectively. As many as 2,811 ships had called on these ports during the first ten months of this year.
Hamad Port – which features an intermodal transport network that offers direct and indirect shipping services to more than 100 destinations, facilitating efficient transportation and logistics services locally and abroad – alone witnessed as many as 120 vessels in October this year.
Qatar Chamber recently said the country's foreign trade and private sector’s exports have been showing promising results, indicating that the Qatari economy has witnessed a remarkable recovery from the negative impacts of Covid-19 pandemic.
The container handling through the three ports stood at 114,427 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), which, however, fell 10.95% and 11.13% year-on-year and month-on-month respectively in October 2021. The container handling stood at 1.31mn TEUs in the first ten months of this year.
Hamad Port, which is the largest eco-friendly project in the region and internationally recognised as one of the largest green ports in the world, saw as many as 112,959 TEUs of containers handled in October 2021.
Recently QTerminals said the four remaining quay cranes and 10 rubber tired gantry, which are to be deployed for operations in Container Terminal 2 of Hamad Port, have been loaded from China and will arrive in Hamad Port this month.
The three ports were seen handling 45,494 livestock in October, showing a 37.18% and 40.75% expansion on a yearly and monthly basis respectively. The ports had handled 289,081 heads during January-October 2021.
The building materials handled stood at 36,236 tonnes this October, which shrank 3.52% and 13.15% year-on-year and month-on-month respectively. A total of 490,002 tonnes of building materials had been handled by these three ports during the first ten months of this year.
The rebound of business activities, especially in the construction sector; rather corroborates the Qatar Financial Centre’s positive outlook on the non-energy private sector.
The three ports had handled 5,008 vehicles (RORO) in October 2021, which fell 13.98% year-on-year but grew 14.97% month-on-month. They together handled 61,213 vehicles during January-October this year. Hamad Port alone handled 4,903 units in October this year.