Port of Salalah
Port of Salalah is located in southern Oman some 1000 km down the coast from Muscat, and just 150 km from major East-West shipping lanes. Port of Salalah has established itself as a leading container transhipment centre on the Indian Ocean Rim since its opening in November 1998.
For the past couple of years, the Port of Salalah has been operating at near optimum capacity on the back on an extraordinary growth in world container trade, underscoring the port’s robust appeal to transhipment cargo. World container trade witnessed strong growth of 12 per cent during 2004 and has remained at healthy levels of over 10 per cent during 2005. Last year, the Port of Salalah handled around 2.4 million TEUs (twenty-foot container equivalent units).
The Port is currently undergoing a major infrastructure upgrade to keep pace with surging demand for its facilities as a transhipment hub. This expansion, involving the construction of two additional berths of 18 metres depth and a new 2.85km breakwater, is of around $262 million. The new berths — its fifth and sixth container berths — will allow the port to handle an additional 1.76 million TEU per annum. The expansion will take the total TEU capacity at the Port of Salalah to approximately four million TEU per annum and allow the port to handle up to eight container ships at once. Berth 5 is expected to be operational by October 2006 and Berth 6 in September 2007.
The Government established an industrial free zone at Salalah, adjacent to the port with the potential to make Salalah a major air-sea cargo hub and center for industrial development. The Free Zone, which is developed in multiple phases, offers a mix of industrial, light manufacturing, freight station, distribution, R&D, commercial offices, retail, recreation and housing products.Port of Salalah is located in southern Oman some 1000 km down the coast from Muscat, and just 150 km from major East-West shipping lanes. Port of Salalah has established itself as a leading container transhipment centre on the Indian Ocean Rim since its opening in November 1998.
For the past couple of years, the Port of Salalah has been operating at near optimum capacity on the back on an extraordinary growth in world container trade, underscoring the port’s robust appeal to transhipment cargo. World container trade witnessed strong growth of 12 per cent during 2004 and has remained at healthy levels of over 10 per cent during 2005. Last year, the Port of Salalah handled around 2.4 million TEUs (twenty-foot container equivalent units).
The Port is currently undergoing a major infrastructure upgrade to keep pace with surging demand for its facilities as a transhipment hub. This expansion, involving the construction of two additional berths of 18 metres depth and a new 2.85km breakwater, is of around $262 million. The new berths — its fifth and sixth container berths — will allow the port to handle an additional 1.76 million TEU per annum. The expansion will take the total TEU capacity at the Port of Salalah to approximately four million TEU per annum and allow the port to handle up to eight container ships at once. Berth 5 is expected to be operational by October 2006 and Berth 6 in September 2007.
The Government established an industrial free zone at Salalah, adjacent to the port with the potential to make Salalah a major air-sea cargo hub and center for industrial development. The Free Zone, which is developed in multiple phases, offers a mix of industrial, light manufacturing, freight station, distribution, R&D, commercial offices, retail, recreation and housing products.
