Qatar sees 8% jump y-o-y in ship calls in July 2021

Qatar witnessed about 8% growth year-on-year in the number of ships calling on its Hamad, Doha and Al Ruwais ports, reflecting the increased trade, especially in automobiles (RORO), building materials and livestock, according to Mwani Qatar.The number of ships calling on Qatar's three ports stood at 298 in July 2021, which was 7.97% higher on yearly basis. However, it was down by about 1% on a monthly basis. As many as 1,950 ships had called on these ports during the first seven months of this year.Qatar Chamber recently said the country's foreign trade and private sector’s exports have been showing promising results, indicating that the Qatari economy has witnessed a remarkable recovery from the negative impacts of Covid-19 pandemic.Hamad Port’s strategic geographical location offers opportunities to create cargo movement towards the upper Gulf, supporting countries such as Kuwait and Iraq and south towards Oman. As many as 123 vessels had called on this port in July this year.“Hamad Port’s second container terminal is designed to address the increasing trade volume, enhancing ease of doing business in Qatar as well as supporting the achievement of economic diversification, which is one of the important goals of Qatar National Vision 2030,” Mwani Qatar said.The building materials handled amounted to 34,929 tonnes in July this year, which surged 26.85% and 8.67% on yearly and monthly basis respectively. A total of 364,528 tonnes of building materials had been handled by these three ports during the first seven months of this year.The rebound of business activities, especially in the construction sector; rather corroborates the Qatar Financial Centre’s positive outlook on the non-energy private sector.The three ports had handled 5,519 vehicles (RORO) in July 2021, which shot up 59.09% year-on-year but declined 6.88% on a monthly basis. They together handled 45,005 vehicles during January-July this year. Hamad Port alone handled 5,454 units in July this year.The three ports were seen handling 37,126 livestock in July, which showed 28.11% expansion on a yearly basis. It had seen a more than 14-fold growth month-on-month. The ports had handled 206,765 heads during the first seven months of this year. Hamad Port alone handled 10,928 heads in July 2021.The container handling through the three ports stood at 121,379 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), which shed 1.44% and 7.21% year-on-year and month-on-month in July 2021. The container handling stood at 940,632 TEUs in January-July this year.QTerminals had recently tweeted that Hamad Port handled container volume of more than 5mn TEUs since the start of operations.The 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, alone saw 118,196 TEUs of containers handling in July 2021.The general cargo handled through the three ports stood at 64,888 tonnes in July 2021, which registered a 48.41% and 63.22% contraction on a yearly and monthly basis respectively. Hamad Port alone handled 57,879 freight tonnes of break-bulk in July this year.On a cumulative basis, the general cargo movement through the three ports totalled 942,961 tonnes in January-July this year.