Qatar’s maritime sector saw a dynamic year-on-year expansion in general cargo and construction materials in March 2022, according to Mwani Qatar.
General cargo passing through the ports of Hamad, Doha and Al Ruwais stood at 149,520 tonnes in March 2022, representing growth of 11.32% and 19.28% year-on-year and a month to month respectively.
Hamad Port – whose multi-purpose terminal is designed to serve the RORO, grain and livestock supply chains – handled 58,895 tonnes of breakbulk cargo and 85,125 tonnes of bulk cargo in March this year .
On a cumulative basis, general cargo movement through the three ports totaled 476,612 tonnes in the first quarter (Q1) of this year.
The number of ships calling at Qatar’s three ports stood at 216 in March 2022, down 13.6% year-on-year, but up 1.41% month-on-month . As many as 657 ships called at ports in January-March this year, down 12.05% year-on-year.
The Port of Hamad – whose strategic geographic location offers opportunities to create cargo movement up the Gulf, supporting countries such as Kuwait and Iraq and south to Oman – has seen up to 121 ships stop in the port.
Building materials handled stood at 64,651 tonnes in March this year, up 32.15% and 38.63% respectively on an annual and monthly basis during the reporting period. A total of 161,592 tonnes of construction materials were handled by these three ports in the first quarter.
Container handling through the country’s Hamad, Doha and Al Ruwais ports stood at 124,313 TEUs (Twenty Foot Equivalent Units), which however declined by 9.75% on an annual basis, but showed a jump of 9.09% month-on-month in March 2022. Container handling stood at 356,443 TEUs in the first three months of this year.
Hamad Port, which is the largest green project in the region and internationally recognized as one of the largest green ports in the world, saw 122,944 TEUs of containers handled in March.
In March, Hamad Port hosted the first call of the MV APL Raffles, the largest container ship with a capacity of 17,300 TEUs and 398 m, to have ever called at the port since the start of operations.
The three ports handled 6,061 vehicles (RORO) in March 2022, which fell 9.12% YoY but jumped 21.41% MoM. Together they 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 head of cattle in March, which plunged 62.34% and 42.88% respectively on an annual and monthly basis. Together they processed 57,730 head from January to March this year.