SALALAH: Port of Salalah handled 511,209 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in September, setting a monthly container record for the second consecutive month and taking combined throughput in August and September above one million TEUs.
September volume was 4.1 per cent higher than August's 491,114 TEUs, which had been the previous monthly record. The terminal also recorded 301,113 container-handling moves, up 3.7 per cent from 290,418 in August.
Josh Surdin, Chief Operating Officer of the Port of Salalah Container Terminal, disclosed the September figures in a LinkedIn post, describing the volume as the highest recorded in a single month at the port.
The two months together accounted for 1,002,323 TEUs, equivalent to about 23 per cent of the 4.325 million TEUs handled during the whole of 2025.
Official port statistics show container throughput rose 31 per cent in 2025 from 3.305 million TEUs in 2024.
The increase continued into 2026. Port of Salalah handled 2.331 million TEUs in the first half of the year, about 14.8 per cent more than the 2.031 million TEUs recorded in the corresponding period of 2025.
First-half data also show the composition of the port's container business. Transshipment accounted for 2.034 million TEUs, or about 87 per cent of total throughput, reflecting Salalah's role primarily as an international hub where containers are transferred between vessels.
Imports and exports - the categories more directly linked to cargo entering or leaving Oman - totalled 190,304 TEUs, or just over 8 per cent of first-half throughput. Restows accounted for a further 106,586 TEUs.
The records follow a $300 million expansion of the container terminal completed in 2025, involving upgrades to all six berths, expansion of the container yard and new ship-to-shore cranes and other infrastructure. The project was designed in part to accommodate traffic under the Gemini Cooperation, the shipping network operated by Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd.
APM Terminals operates Port of Salalah and holds a 30 per cent stake in Salalah Port Services Company. APM Terminals is part of A.P. Moller-Maersk, one of the two shipping groups behind the Gemini network.
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