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Transportation
COVERSTORY
Leading international ports management
and logistics company, Gulftainer, has
announced that the Khorfakkan Container
Terminal, which it operates on behalf of
the Sharjah Ports Authority, has achieved
another milestone - eight gantries working
on a single vessel.
The 350 metre-long, 120,000 deadweight
tonnage (DWT), 9,700 TEU ‘CMA CGM
Pelleas’ called at KCT on Monday 15 March
2010, where work was carried out under
eight gantries, for the first time in the history
of the terminal.
The recent acquisition and delivery of
four new ‘Megamax’ Liebherr container
gantries at the end of 2009 now being
put through their paces on the 440m Berth
extension, allowed this historic event to
take place.
Terminal Manager Dag Froehmcke
commented “it was a great sight to have 8
gantries over the ship, and this has been a
busy time - the last 48 hours have seen the
terminal handling nearly 20, 000 teu - so we
certainly appreciate the new cranes and the
extra quay space.”
Speaking of the latest milestone,
Gulftainer Group Managing Director Peter
Richards said, “It is clear that the expansion
is already strengthening the terminal’s
already impressive performance, and I
am confident that this will continue. KCT
is now well known for its efficient, speedy
performance, and is already regularly
handling ships of over 11,000 TEU. The
terminal is recognized as one of the
fastest container terminals in the world, as
evidenced by the continued high productivity
figures and with the expansion of the
terminal having brought the total number of
gantries up to 20, as well as adding over 400
metres of quay, I am confident that we will
continue to increase our reputation for fast,
efficient handling”.
KCT is one of the world’s leading
container transshipment ports, and is
SCT Manager Paul
Hennessy confirms that
the “we did not see any
decline in volume in 2009
and 2010 seems to have
started well.”
strategically located on Sharjah’s Indian
Ocean east coast, outside the sensitive
Straits of Hormuz, close to the main eastwest
shipping routes. Only three hours
from the UAE’s main centres of population,
Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, KCT is an
ideal transshipment hub port with numerous
feeder ship connections to Gulf Ports, Iran,
India, Pakistan and East Africa.
The only presence of global operators
in the region comprises APMT in Salalah
(Oman) and HPH in Dammam (Saudi
Arabia). In other regions, Russia’s port
industry is export-orientated with the majority
of goods exiting the country directed to
Europe. “Africa is the only sub-region in the
world where we expect capacity to grow
faster than throughput and privatizations
will be the main driver of port investments,
especially by global operators looking mainly
for transshipment hubs such as Tanger in
Morocco or DP World in Djen Djen, Algeria.
Freight rates have strongly rebounded,
especially on the Europe and Mediterranean
services with some lines back at their peak
tariffs of early 2008. In India and South
Asia although ports operators see a big
opportunity in terms of demand, a severe
lack of infrastructure is hampering the
potential in the short term.
When it comes to Latin America the
analysts argue that up to 2016, at least,
container volumes in Brazil have potential
to grow at c8-9 per cent per annum. “This
May 2010 Link 19