MIDDLE EAST

Salalah struggles with transhipment levels

12 years ago

The container terminal at the Port of Salalah, in Oman, reported an 8% drop in container traffic in the first three quarters of this year, from 2.6m teu to 2.4m teu, while the general cargo terminal reported traffic up 26% to 7.8m tonnes.

“Our ability to maintain stability in our core transhipment business remains challenging,” said Ahmed al Mahrizi, chairman of Salalah Port Services Co, in the directors’ report.

This, he explains, is due to increased competition from regional ports that have established hinterland cargo, and from rationalisation of services by Maersk and MSC as a result of the 2M alliance. As a result, Salalah’s transhipment container volumes are likely to decrease during 2015.

The slow growth of global trade had also impacted negatively on box traffic, although a strategy aimed at increasing local import and export volumes has had some success.