Middle East

Transhipment on the wane as region welcomes direct calls

Dubai: The recent growth in container traffic to and from the Middle East is encouraging ocean carriers to replace transhipment schedules with direct deepsea services, consultant Drewry writes in a new report. Maersk’s recent announcement that the Mid-East Gulf ports of Dammam (Saudi Arabia), Jubail (Saudi Arabia) and Abu Dhabi (UAE) are to be added to its ME2 schedule from the Middle East to the Mediterranean, on top of Dubai, “underlines the growing cargo importance of the region”, Drewry noted.

“Many other carriers already have services calling directly at the smaller ports, particularly from Asia, implying that transhipment to/from regional hubs such as Dubai and Khor Fakkan is on the wane,” the UK analyst suggested.
“Cargo growth is the attraction. Redistribution of wealth has given the local Arab population far more disposable income, on top of which the transfer of petro-chemical production from developed countries is helping to boost much needed exports. Instead of ocean carriers being stuck with massive empty container imbalance problems out of the Middle East, a few small ports, such as Jubail, are now even export dominant,” it concluded.  [15/03/13]

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