Doha: As coronavirus related restrictions are seeing gradual lifting in the country, the cargo movement at the ports of Qatar witnessed a significant increase in October 2020.
Mwani Qatar tweeted yesterday that ports’ container handling saw “an increase of 17 percent in October 2020 compared to the same period of 2019 reaching nearly 128,500 TEUs.”
According to Mwani Qatar, building materials volume (in October this year) also increased by 29 percent compared to October 2019. In October this year, 330 vessels visited Hamad Port, Ruwais Port and Doha Port.
The ports handled 128, 498 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) containers; 36,625 tonnes of general cargo, 5822 vehicles, 33,163 heads of livestock and 37, 558 tonnes of building materials in October 2020.
Another post by QTerminals on its Twitter account indicates that Hamad Port alone handled 123,924 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) containers, 30,270 general cargo, 5665 vehicles and 1768 heads of livestock in October 2020.
Meanwhile Qatar Monthly Statistics bulletin of September 2020 also indicates an increase in number of vessels visiting Qatar’s ports. One of the prominent changes in statistics of September 2020 is an increase in total number of ships arriving at Qatar ports and total net tonnage of ships, with a monthly increase of 14.8 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively (compared to August 2020). The highest percentage of this increase in September 2020 was at Hamad Port, as the number of ships and their net tonnage reached 30.8percent and 21.8percent, respectively.
“Hamad Port’s continuous achievements, advanced infrastructure and strategic location make it an ideal gateway for investors in Umm Alhoul Free Zone.
During the COVID-19 period, the port played a vital role in ensuring a smooth supply of goods during these unprecedented times,” Qatar Free Zones Authority tweeted yesterday. During the first six months of this year, Hamad Port, Ruwais Port and Doha Port had registered a 102 percent increase in general cargo handling compared to the same period of 2019. The ports have remained busy in the first half of this year as 1,509 ships docked at Hamad Port, Doha Port and Ruwais Port during the January-June period. The ports handled 727,716 tonnes of general cargo in the first six months of this year, compared to 360,644 tonnes in the same period in 2019.