Omani ports have witnessed a healthy increase in cargo throughput during the first half of 2022 – a reflection of a rapidly recovering economy following the disruption caused by the economic downturn and pandemic.
During the first half of 2022, Omani ports achieved an increase in the volume of bulk, general and liquid cargo by five per cent to reach 42.76 million tonnes, compared to 40.61 million tonnes for H1 2021, according to the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology.
The Directorate General of Ports noted that containerised cargo volumes inched up 2 per cent to reach 2.58 million TEUs, compared to 2.53 million TEUs in the same period last year. The reason for the increase is due to a rise in containers handled at the Port of Salalah.
Ship movements dipped 0.02 per cent to 4.7K vessels. Ro-RO traffic slumped 34 per cent to 36.17K vehicles largely on account of the after-effects if the global economic recession aggravated by the pandemic and the rise in freight prices globally.
In the same context, Omani ports received during the first half of 2022 around 38.5 thousand cruise passengers, a remarkable increase of 100 per cent over the previous period. Livestock handled by the ports totalled 1.96 million head, which was 5 per cent higher than the corresponding period of 2021.
During the first half of 2021, Omani ports handled nearly 2.5 million containers (TEUs) from January to June 2021 as well as 28.8 million tonnes of general cargo, recording a rise of 18 per cent over its performance in the first six months in 2020. In the meantime, liquid commodities handling grew by 12 per cent to 9.9 million, compared to the corresponding period of 2020. Such steady rise in volumes of liquid and general cargo was in accordance with the growth of economic and business activities in the Sultanate of Oman.
Imported livestock witnessed a notice spike of 65 per cent during the first six months of 2021 (1.9 million head). The import of vehicles and equipment dropped by 8 per cent (55,500 vehicles and equipment imported or re-exported) due to the decline in global economy and its impact on local and regional markets.
More than 4,400 vessels visited the country’s ports from January to June 2021.
