Sharjah container volume grows 8%

Dubai: Container volume at Sharjah's ports grew by eight per cent last year, according to the company managing the emirate's sea cargo facilities.

Gulftainer Company Limited, which manages the container terminals in Khor Fakkan and at Sharjah's Port Khalid, said the combined throughput was 2.17 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent standards container units). The two terminals achieved about two million TEUs in 2006.

Commercial manager Keith Nuttall said the deepwater port of Khor Fakkan is being further expanded to accommodate large new-generation vessels.

"The phase two development is now underway and scheduled for completion by the end of 2008," he said.

Gulftainer, which operates the port facilities on behalf of the Sharjah Port Authority, did not say how much money the government is investing in port expansion and equipment.

The project will increase Khor Fakkan Container Terminal's existing 1,460 metres of quay by 440 metres. The new quay will be protected by an 800-metre breakwater.

Easier access

"This has been constructed to give maximum protection to the new berth while at the same time providing the easiest possible access for 8,000-plus TEU capacity ships," Nuttall said.

He said much of the dredging required to provide 16.5 metres of water depth alongside the quay wall has already been completed and the infilling for the berth's foundation is underway.

Upon completion of the new berth, six new ship-to-shore super post panamax gantries will be installed, taking the number of such cranes at the port to 20. The terminal will also boast of new rubber-tyred gantries (RTGs) and road trains.

At Sharjah Container Terminal (SCT), Gulftainer has added two new mobile cranes and is scheduled to take delivery of two post-panamax cranes soon.

"Both KCT and SCT are vital gateways into the UAE markets allowing options for customers who would otherwise be locked into the landside infrastructural challenges posed by the use of other terminals," Nuttall said, referring to the often clogged arterial roads in several parts of the UAE.