Hamad Port sees highest ever breakbulk volume handled in March 2023

Hamad Port registered the highest ever volume of breakbulk handled in March 2023; while cargo and livestock throughput at Qatar's three major ports zoomed 98% and 451% year-on-year, according to the official figures.
The three ports - Hamad, Doha and Al Ruwais - displayed robust performance in terms of ship arrivals and throughput both on yearly and monthly basis respectively in the review period as well as in the first three months of this year, according to figures released by Mwani Qatar.
The number of ships calling on Qatar's three ports stood at 231 this March, which was 6.94% and 11.59% higher year-on-year and month-on-month, respectively.
Hamad Port, which offers opportunities to create cargo movement towards the upper Gulf, supporting countries such as Kuwait and Iraq and south towards Oman – saw as many as 135 vessels call on the port in the review period.
As many as 664 ships had called on three ports in the first three months of this year, recording a 1.07% on an annualised basis.
The general cargo handled through the three ports was 297,009 tonnes in March 2023, which showed 98.64% and 43.44% gains on yearly and monthly basis respectively in the review period.
Hamad Port – whose multi-use terminal is designed to serve the supply chains for the RORO (vehicles), grains and livestock – handled 291,427 freight tonnes of breakbulk in March this year.
"The volume of breakbulk is the highest ever handled in Hamad Port," QTerminals said in a tweet.
On a cumulative basis, the general cargo movement through the three ports shot up 29.5% year-on-year to total 617,641 tonnes during January-March 2023.
The three ports handled 53,193 livestock heads in March 2023, which zoomed 451% on a yearly basis but was down 6.14% month-on-month. The three ports together handled 151,907 livestock in the first three months of this year, registering a 161.6% increase on an annualised basis.
The three ports handled 7,007 RORO in March 2023, which registered a 15.61% and 23.69% jump year-on-year and month-on-month respectively. Hamad Port alone handled 6,964 units in March 2023.
The three ports together handled as many as 18,380 vehicles during January-March2023, reporting a 9.5% expansion year-on-year.
The container handling through three ports stood at 114,079 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), which fell 8.23% and 1.87% year-on-year and month-on-month respectively in March 2023.
Hamad Port, which is the largest eco-friendly project in the region and internationally recognised as one of the largest green ports in the world, saw 114,262 TEUs of containers handled in the review period.
The container handling through the three ports stood at 341,955 TEUs during January-March 2023, which showed a 4.06% contraction on an annualised basis.
The container terminals have been designed to address the increasing trade volume, enhancing ease of doing business as well as supporting the achievement of economic diversification, which is one of the most important goals of the Qatar National Vision 2030.
The building materials traffic through the three ports stood at 50,969 tonnes in March 2023, which tanked 21.63% year-on-year but shot up 77.22% month-on-month in the review period.
A total of 134,637 tonnes of building materials had been handled by these ports in January-February 2023, thus registering 16.68% shrinkage on a yearly basis.