(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Faced by a booming trade demand, the GCC's logistic sector is set to pile enormous pressure on the ports across the region.
Multi-billion dollar investment into the region's ports and plans for GCC-wide multimodal transportation systems are well underway, however, the immediate challenge of logistics management is occupying the minds of port operators across the Middle East as trade demand outpaces physical expansion.
According to the Agility Logistics Emerging Markets Index 2014, the Gulf countries, along with Jordan, are riding high in the table of international locations offering favourable conditions for business and trade. In this year's index, Saudi Arabia climbed one place to third spot, with the UAE at number six followed by Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain at 12, 13, 18 and 22, respectively.
The GCC has at least 35 major ports and is pursuing an ambitious expansion strategy as the logistics sector, and burgeoning non-oil trade, continue their growth trajectory to further position the region, and its key ports, as a global hub for trade between Europe, Africa and Asia, Chris Hayman, an industry expert said yesterday.
Petrochemicals aside, the region is seeing huge movement in gold, automotive, precious gems, telecommunications hardware, crude aluminium, copper products, iron scrap and a wide array of items both for import and export, and so its ports play a pivotal role in global trade movement, said Hayman.
"Global container movements are not slowing down and the order book for ultra-large container vessels is also growing, so this is where regional infrastructure investment has had to rewrite the book in terms of new operational requirements and the development of an integrated network of next generation facilities in order to handle the estimated $35bn value of the GCC logistics sector," he added.
Industry estimates suggest that with port expansion programmes reportedly set to increase regional capacity to more than 65 million TEU by 2016, new industrial zones such as the $7.2bn Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (KIZAD) and Jebel Ali's recently debuted Terminal 3, with its connectivity to the Dubai World Central super-hub, already providing welcome relief and much-needed facilities.
The expansion tally includes Abu Dhabi's Khalifa Port, with its terminal scheduled to open in 2015; Oman's $4bn Sohar Industrial Zone which will be linked to the GCC rail network, and the $143m sea-air hub expansion at Salalah.
In Qatar, the new multi-billion-dollar mega-port located close to Mesaieed Industrial Zone will be up-and-running in 2016. The tightrope between booming trade demand and current overall port capacity in the region will headline a panel discussion at the ongoing Seatrade Middle East Maritime conference in Dubai.
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