The volume of cargo handled at the sultanate's ports surged by 18 per cent during the first quarter of this year as compared to the same period last year.
Total cargo volume at the sultanate's two largest ports increased to 2.82mn tonnes during the first three months of this year from 2.38mn tonnes in the same period last year, according to Port Services Corp and Port of Salalah data.
Salalah port posted a 34 per cent rise in cargo volumes to 1.48mn tonnes. In comparison, Port Sultan Qaboos registered a cargo growth of 4.4 per cent to 1.34mn tonnes during the quarter.
The total volume of cargo handled at both the ports in 2010 stood at 11.2mn tonnes.
Commenting on the outlook for the shipping and container industry in 2011, a senior official of Oman Shipping Co said that the shipping and containers business is likely to remain sluggish this year.
"The outlook for the shipping industry in 2011 is little depressing as the current supply is more than the demand. The current year would not be as good as 2010.
For the container business as well the outlook is not very rosy, due to various reasons like unrest in the Middle East, weakening of the US dollar, financing problems due to the global slowdown."
The official added that growth in cargo volume at Salalah port is due to transshipments rather than direct export-import. "Salalah is being used as a transshipment centre by many countries, while Port Sultan Qaboos is used mainly for imports.
So there is no linkage between Port Sultan Qaboos and Salalah Port as both are different in nature."
At Port Sultan Qaboos, a total 1.1mn tonnes of cargo were unloaded (imports) during first quarter, among which food stuff and construction material had the biggest share.
A total of 244,500 tonnes of cargo were loaded (exports) at the port during the period.
The total cargo volume at Port Sultan Qaboos in 2010 stood at 4.94mn tonnes, of which 4mn tonnes of cargo were unloaded (imports) and 859,600 tonnes were loaded (exports).
However, during the first quarter, at Port Sultan Qaboos, imports of food stuff declined by 20 per cent, while imports of vehicles increased by 17 per cent.
At Salalah, 240,700 tonnes of cargo were unloaded and 1.24mn tonnes were loaded during the first quarter of this year.
The total cargo handled at Salalah Port in 2010 touched 6.3mn tonnes, of which 934,500 tonnes were unloaded and 5.34mn tonnes loaded.
The number of mooring vessels surged by 94 per cent to 869 from 448 at Port Sultan Qaboos and declined by 16 per cent at Salalah port, from 417 to 349 during the quarter.
The total number of mooring vessels were 3,465 at both the ports in 2010.
© Muscat Daily 2011
