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Over the past year Salalah’s general cargo facilities performed exceptionally well, but this was offset by another period of contraction in container volumes, according to annual results recently announced by the Port of Salalah.
The Omani port’s general cargo terminal registered a record throughput of 10.31 million tonnes, a growth of 30 per cent compared with 2013. This mainly reflects increases in shipments of limestone and gypsum as well as methanol and bagged cement. The container terminal handled 3.03 million teu, which was 9% less than in the year before due to changing transshipment patterns amongst major customers.
The Port of Salalah says it expects to see continued growth at the general cargo terminal, with traffic rising to over 12 million tonnes for 2015. A statement from the Port added: “Our challenge will be to continue to handle these products efficiently and we look forward to the handover from the Government of the additional quay space we will require. We are planning a significant investment in automated equipment for handling aggregates which expect to receive and commission in 2016.”
The future for the container terminal, however, is less optimistic as Salalah expects the reduction in throughput that has been experienced in recent years to accelerate. The port added: “Shipping lines always want to avoid incurring the extra costs of transshipment and with increasing vessel tonnage available they can now do more direct calls. This is a growing trend and will mean that our transshipment business will continue to erode for the foreseeable future.”
The future of the container business in the Port of Salalah depends to a large extent on its ability to grow import and export traffic. The port has enjoyed some success in this sector during 2014, although to some extent this was due to problems at Sohar after the closure of Port Sultan Qaboos. The port accepts its future is very dependent on the success of the Salalah Free Zone and the timing of the connection of Salalah to the planned GCC rail network.
