Doha, Qatar: Hamad Port keeps moving forward firmly towards more powerful position as one of the key ports in the Middle East and the region. It targets achieving a more efficient logistics services industry in Qatar and the transformation into a leading global trade hub, thus enhancing its economic diversification plans in step with the Qatar National Vision 2030.

QTerminals on its X platform yesterday, posted its achievements in the last year. QTerminals is a terminal operating company jointly established by Qatar Ports Management Company (Mwani Qatar) and Qatar Navigation (Milaha) and is responsible for enabling Qatar’s imports and exports, its maritime trade flows and stimulating economic growth locally and regionally.

It stated, “QTerminals Antalya welcomed Mein Schiff 6 from Alexandria, which was carrying onboard around 5,000 passengers and is considered one of the largest luxury cruise ships it has received among many others this year. The port hosts several luxury cruise ships every year.”

“Hamad Port received Berlin Express one of the largest vessels in the world on its maiden voyage. The vessel is Hapag-Lloyd’s first ultra-large containership,” it added.

In 2023, Hamad Port handled 1,318,414 TEUs containers; 1,303,049 freight tonnes of break bulk; 400,478 freight tonnes of bulk; 9,301 livestock heads; 80,294 RORO units. Last year also saw as many as 1,655 vessels docking at the port.

Hamad Port received 137 vessels in December 2023, while the containers, bulk, break bulk and RORO handled stood at 106,603 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), 31,000 F/T (freight tonnes), 101,022 F/T and 8,310 units respectively.

It further said, QTerminals continues to hold and maintain ISO9001 – ISO14001 – ISO45001 Certification in Quality, Health, Safety and Environmental Performance. It commenced the operation of the shipping line, Middle East 6 in last year. This service provides additional opportunities for direct trading between countries with regular service, faster and more cost-effective transit.

The terminal operating company was awarded the Certificate of Excellence from NYK Middle East for maintaining a perfect track record of Zero Accidents and Damage in Roll-On/Roll-Off (RORO) operations. QTerminals signed a sale purchase agreement (SPA) for the acquisition of a majority equity stake at Karmer Holding B V in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It also extended the Acquisition Agreement for Akdeniz Port in Antalya-Turkiye for 19 years (until 2047).

Highlighting further the achievement it stated that in last year, Hamad Port crossed the 8 million TEUs container throughput milestone, indicating the growing importance of Qatar in the regional and international maritime space.

New shipping lines were added which brings the total number to around 30 shipping lines connecting Hamad Port to over 100 maritime destinations worldwide and Hamad Port achieved four million man-hour without any lost time injury (LTI), it noted.

Qatar’s main gateway to world trade, Hamad Port was ranked as the eighth in the world and third in the Arab region by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence.

This reflects the port’s high-quality operations as it measures the time needed by ships to complete loading and unloading task, confirming the high capabilities of the port, which is one of the largest ports in the Middle East.

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