Qatar's maritime sector saw a buoyant year-on-year expansion in general cargo and building materials during March 2022, according to Mwani Qatar.
The general cargo handled through Hamad, Doha and Al Ruwais ports stood at 149,520 tonnes in March 2022, which showed 11.32% and 19.28% growth year-on-year and month-on-month respectively.
Hamad Port – whose multi-use terminal is designed to serve the supply chains for the RORO, grains and livestock – handled 58,895 freight tonnes of break-bulk and 85,125 freight tonnes of bulk in March this year.
On a cumulative basis, the general cargo movement through the three ports totalled 476,612 tonnes in the first quarter (Q1) of this year.
The number of ships calling on Qatar's three ports stood at 216 in March 2022, which was 13.6% lower on yearly basis but was up 1.41% month-on-month. As many as 657 ships called on the ports in January-March this year, a 12.05% decline year-on-year.
Hamad Port – whose strategic geographical location offers opportunities to create cargo movement towards the upper Gulf, supporting countries such as Kuwait and Iraq and south towards Oman – saw as many as 121 ships call on the port.
The building materials handled amounted to 64,651 tonnes in March this year, which grew 32.15% and 38.63% respectively on yearly and monthly basis respectively in the review period. A total of 161,592 tonnes of building materials had been handled by these three ports in Q1.
The container handling through the country's Hamad, Doha and Al Ruwais ports stood at 124,313 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), which however declined 9.75% on a yearly basis, but posted a 9.09% jump month-on-month in March 2022. The container handling stood at 356,443 TEUs in the first three months of this year.
The 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 122,944 TEUs of containers handled this March.
In March, Hamad Port welcomed the maiden call of MV APL Raffles, the largest container vessel with a capacity of 17,300 TEUs and 398m, to ever call on the port since the start of operations.
The three ports handled 6,061 vehicles (RORO) in March 2022, which fell 9.12% year-on-year but surged 21.41% month-on-month. They together handled 16,786 vehicles in January-March. Hamad Port alone handled 6,043 units in March this year.
The three ports had handled 9,654 livestock in March, which plunged 62.34% and 42.88 on yearly and monthly basis respectively. Together they handled 57,730 heads during January-March this year.
 
 
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