MUSCAT: Oman’s Ministry of Transport and Communications on Tuesday floated a tender to select a consultant for conducting studies and designing the third phase expansion of Port of Salalah.
According to the Tender Board website, the consultant will conduct a study on the third phase expansion and will design the expansion programme. The tender documents will be distributed up to August 6, while the tenders will be opened on August 31.
In fact, Port of Salalah has formulated a 20-year master plan (2011-30), which envisions the establishment of the Salalah hub that includes a railway connection and distribution centre, food reserve and processing centres among warehousing and other logistics facilities, dedicated terminals for cruise tourism and liquid storage along with dedicated facilities.
Port of Salalah is among the world’s top transshipment ports and continues to provide an important service to the global supply chain. It provides a significant opportunity for businesses to benefit from the Salalah hub network of multi-modal transport (sea-air-road) and Salalah Free Zone incentives, the company said in its first quarter report.
Port of Salalah continues to achieve considerable volume growth at the General Cargo Terminal (GCT), which reflects the role of the port in supporting local businesses expansion and growth. However, transshipment volumes at the Container Terminal (CT) have declined as compared to the corresponding period last year.
The container terminal has handled 627,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) during the first quarter of 2015, which was a 24 per cent decline against the same period last year, due to ongoing fluctuating volumes from the port’s major customers. The management has been pursuing an increase in share of business from existing customers and actively endeavours to attract new customers.
In addition to transshipment volumes, the political crisis in Yemen has opened up an opportunity to utilise the port of Salalah as a Gateway port for Eastern Yemen. “We have already seen an uptick in interest from Yemeni cargo owners, shipping lines, and aid agencies alike.”
Port of Salalah said that the outlook for the general cargo terminal is positive. The growth in limestone and gypsum mining activities is expected to continue growing during 2015.
