Omani ports post positive growth in 2021

Key trends: Uptick in cargo throughput, vessel movement

BUSINESS REPORTER

MUSCAT, FEB 12

Cargo volumes handled by the country’s main maritime gateways grew 9 per cent to 77.1 million tons last year over the previous year’s tally, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology said.

Cargo throughput at Port of Salalah amounted to 16.861 million tons in 2021, up 10.2 per cent from the previous year’s total of 15.296 million tons.

Sohar Port witnessed an 8.7 per cent increase in cargo throughput at 58.647 million tons in 2021, up from 53.970 million tons a year earlier. Khasab Port in Musandam Governorate reported an 82.4 per cent increase to 91,344 tons of goods in 2021, up from 50,770 tons in 2020. Port Sultan Qaboos in Muscat saw cargo volumes decline 7.1 per cent to 799,687 tons last year, down from 860,766 tons of goods in 2020.

In all, Omani ports handled more than 5.2 million TEUs of containers in 2021, which was up 2 per cent compared to the previous year’s total. Of this number, Port of Salalah handled 4.5 million TEU, while Sohar Port handled about 716,000 TEUs of containers.

Port calls were up 1 per cent to 10,600 across all the ports in 2021, up from around 10,500 in 2020.

According to Muhanna bin Moosa Baqir, Director General of Ports, the uptick in cargo throughput and vessel calls came despite pandemic-induced challenges and disruptions in the global supply chain, which led to a severe dearth of available shipping containers, congestion at various international ports, higher freight costs, and pile-ups of containers and cargo at transit ports.

But despite the global difficulties, Omani ports performed better than 2020, he said, attributing the improved performance to effective follow-up, coordination and integration between the ministry, relevant government agencies, global and local partners and the operators of these ports.

In a statement to ONA, he added that the positive performance of Omani ports will continue the current year as the Ministry continues to work with other government and private sector stakeholders, as well as port operators, to streamline process and improve the overall business environment in the ports.

According to Aida bint Yousef al Rahbiya of Oman Logistics Centre, the positive results are a reflction of the efforts of the government and its partners in implementing the objectives of the Sultanate of Oman Logistics Strategy 2040, which is overseen by the Oman Logistics Centre at the Ministry. (ONA)