Oman International Container Terminal (OICT) has announced that it has started construction on the US$1.3mn expansion the Port of Sohar
The project will boost the capacity of the terminal from the current 30.8mn cubic metres to 57.7mn cubic metres.
It will also enable the consolidation of existing and future container handling operations at the port.
It will have a total quay length of approximately 1km and 680,000 square metres of container yard. The deep water availability alongside OICT?s Terminal C will enable it to increase the volume of container vessels to 346,598 cubic metres.
Andre Toet, CEO of Sohar Industrial Port Company, said, ?One key achievement of the strong development of container volumes in Sohar is that they are being built based upon a captive market; a market that keeps expanding beyond the local horizon. This will attract more mainliners in the near future, further reducing the logistical costs in the Omani supply chain. A consortium of large container shipping lines, called G6, is already expanding in using Sohar as their port of call.
?Combined with the transition of commercial cargoes from Muscat Port to Sohar by the end of this year and the fast pace development of Sohar Free Zone, this will serve as a strong addition to the captive base.?
According to Rashid Jamil, CEO of OICT, the project will not only make Sohar more attractive to bring more transshipment cargo, it will also offer an excellent opportunity to bring back the Omani cargoes which are currently being served by neighbouring country ports.
OICT is a joint venture between Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), the government of Oman, Steinweg of Netherlands and a number of Omani investors.
