Qatar Ports Witness Doubled-Digit Growth in May, Says Mwani Qatar

Qatar’s Hamad, Doha and Al Ruwais ports displayed robust performance in May this year as it witnessed doubled-digit growth in the number of ships calling on these ports and container handling, according to Mwani Qatar.

There was also more than doubling of the building materials handled through these ports year-on-year in April 2021; indicating a robust outlook for the construction sector, as corroborated by the rising trends in building permissions issued in the recent months.

The number of ships calling on Qatar's three ports stood at 304 in May 2021, which was 23.58% and 1.33% higher on yearly and monthly basis respectively. As many as 1,351 ships had called on the ports during the first five months of this year.

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 many as 139 vessels had called on this port in May this year.

Qatar's share in the overall Middle East trade is expected to significantly increase with the robust technological infrastructure supporting the Hamad Port's second container terminal (CT2).

The container handling through the three ports stood at 139,340 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), which grew 25.67% and 1% year-on-year and month-on-month respectively in May 2021. The container handling stood at 688,438 TEUs in January-May this year.

QTerminals had recently tweeted that Hamad Port handled container volume of more than 5mn TEUs since the start of operations.

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, alone saw 138,402 TEUs of containers handled in May 2021.

The building materials handled amounted to 54,378 tonnes in May this year, which more than doubled year-on-year and was up 10.68% month-on-month in the review period. A total of 302,457 tonnes of building materials had been handled by these three ports during January-May 2021.

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 52,252 livestock in April, which more than doubled on yearly and monthly basis respectively.

 Together they handled 157,744 heads in the first four months of this year.

The three ports handled 6,663 vehicles (RORO) in May 2021, which grew 53.45% year-on-year but declined 7.03% month-on-month. They together handled 33,559 vehicles in the first five months of this year. Hamad Port alone handled 6,608 units in May this year.

The general cargo handled through the three ports stood at 115,626 tonnes in May 2021, which showed a 25.07% and 6.33% decline on a yearly and monthly basis respectively. Hamad Port alone handled 112,256 freight tonnes of break-bulk in April this year.

On a cumulative basis, the general cargo movement through the three ports totalled 701,634 tonnes in January-May this year.

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