Hamad Port officially opens for business

The new Qatari seaport will help “circumnavigate Arab sanctions” that previously shunted Qatar’s global trade, according to multiple media sources.    Qatar recently opened its $7.4 billion Hamad Port to “help shield its economy against sanctions enforced by neighboring Arab states,” according to reports from multiple media sources.
   The port, roughly 40km south of Doha, spans 26 square kilometers and will have a capacity of 7.5 million containers a year with terminals built to receive livestock, cereals, vehicles and coastguard vessels, Qatari Transport Minister Jassim bin Saif al-Sulaiti said of the project, according to a Reuters news service report.
   Diplomatic ties with Qatar were broken earlier this year, with neighboring countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) banning trade with Qatar. As a result, the country has been seeking imports elsewhere as as roughly half of its food is sourced in the Middle East, primarily from the UAE.
   According to Qatari Transport Minister Jassim bin Saif al-Sulaiti, “the opening of the port will now bring further food security and economic diversification in line with Qatar National Vision 2030, a project that aims to boost the country’s economic diversity. The port…will break the shackles of any restrictions imposed on our economy. We are not giving up on our hopes and ambitions.”
   Qatar has increasingly relied on imports and shipping routes to and from China, India, Oman, Turkey and Pakistan. With the opening of Hamad port to global trade, large container ships will now go directly to Qatar rather than docking in the United Arab Emirates, where cargo used to be transferred to smaller vessels – such as the system utilized by Danish ocean carrier Maersk Line.
   In an interview with a local media source, Gulf Times, al-Sulaiti stated that the Hamad Port accounts for 27 percent of the country’s imports. “We never thought we are taking this much volume in Hamad Port; and this is a testament of Hamad Port’s success. In the next two years, Hamad Port is expected to take more than 35% of trade in the region,” he said.
   According to Reuters, the Qatari government expects Hamad Port to be fully operational in 2020, after its third phase is completed.