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Port of Sohar starts expansion of container terminal
It underwrites the faith of the company of the potential of the North Batinah region to serve as a gateway for the cargo flows of Oman, the surrounding GCC countries and the Indian subcontinent. The ceremony was attended by senior representatives of the shipping industry, China Harbour Construction Company, Sohar Industrial Port Company and OICT.
The construction will enable the consolidation of the existing and future container handling operations at Portof Sohar. It will have a total quay length of approximately 1 kilometer and 68 hectares container yard. The terminal will be outfitted with the 4 current quay cranes with 3 additional post-panamax quay cranes and 14 RTG's. The, for this region, unique deep water availability alongside OICT's Terminal C enables them to increase the size of container vessels to 9,000 TEU. The investments in this expansion are estimated to reach around OMR 50 million.
One key achievement of the strong development of container volumes in Sohar is that they are being built based upon a captive market; a market that keeps expanding beyond the local horizon, even into the UAE. This will attract more mainliners in the near future, further reducing the logistics costs in the Omani supply chain. A consortium of large container shipping lines, the so-called G6 is already expanding in using Sohar as their port of call. Combined with the transition of commercial cargoes from Muscat Port to Sohar by the end of this year and the fast pace development of Sohar Freezone, this will serve as a strong addition to the captive base, according to Mr. Andre Toet, CEO of Sohar Industrial Port Company.
We truly believe that our expansion and the opportunities offered by Sohars' location will stimulate further increase of activities in Sohar. It will not only make Sohar more attractive to bring more transshipment cargo, it will also offer an excellent opportunity to bring back the Omani cargoes which are currently being served by neighboring country ports. This volume is estimated to be around 200.000 TEU per annum, approximately 25% of the total Omani domestic market, as Captain Rashid Jamil, CEO of OICT, quoted. This will increase the possibilities for the trade to increaser their logistic activities in Oman itself and therewith open up more local job opportunities.
The initiated expansion is seen only as phase I of the expansion of the container activities in Sohar. Whilst working on the current project, Port of Sohar and OICT are already looking into next phase opportunities, which will entail the development of Terminal D by 2018. This will open up an additional capacity of 2,5 mio TEU to embark on the rapid growing interest of shipping lines to use Sohar as an import hub in the region. Hamburg Süd: Double christening of the Cap San Nicolas and Cap San Marco in South Korea Hamburg Süd celebrated the double christening of its container ships Cap San Nicolas and Cap San Marco at the Hyundai Heavy Industries yard in Ulsan (South Korea). With a nominal slot capacity of 9,600 TEU, the two newbuildings are Hamburg Süd's largest-ever vessels and, with 2,100 reefer plugs, the ships with the largest reefer capacity worldwide at present.
The sponsor of the Cap San Nicolas is Narcisa Oetker, wife of Ferdinand Oetker, Partner in Dr. August Oetker KG and Director of Bankhaus Lampe. The Cap San Marco was christened by Doris Deichmann, wife of Fred Deichmann, Managing Director of Hamburg Süd subsidiary Columbus Shipmanagement GmbH.
The container ships are the first of a series of six newbuildings of the new Cap San class. After her delivery the Cap San Nicolas will be phased into the shipping group's liner service between Asia and South America East Coast in June. The Cap San Marco is to be deployed in the same service in July.
Two more Cap San ships will be delivered at the Korean yard in the current year. The last two units of this series are then due to be handed over to Hamburg Süd in January 2014.