(MENAFN- The Peninsula) By Mohammad Shoeb / The Peninsula
The mining and quarrying activities along the Port of Fujairah in the UAE have declined by about 90 percent due to the ongoing blockade against Qatar by Arab quartet, which is proving self-destructive every passing day. The number of monthly shipments from the port has declined to just two consignments from 20 before the blockade, according to a top official of the Doha-based Qatar Primary Material Company (QPMC).
Issa Al Hammadi, Chief Executive Officer of QPMC said that there were Qatari investors who partnered with Emirati companies and businessmen who jointly carried businesses, including quarrying activities in the UAE. These joint companies, before the illegal siege, used to export gabbros from Fujairah port to Qatar with an average of 18 vessels every month, accounting for over 90 percent of the port's business activities. Now the port departs only one vessel in two weeks to destinations which do not have major construction activities unlike Qatar.
Al Hammadi stressed that the blockading countries are suffering in different ways. They have also suffered heavy losses because over 95 percent of the big Gulf companies (a significant number of them from siege countries) were implementing major projects in Qatar, and made huge profits out of it. He said that there is no shortage of primary materials in the country as QPMC has been maintaining a strategic reserve of primary materials which is enough for the local requirement
'We are maintaining a strategic inventory of almost all the primary raw materials. With regard to gabbros and limestone, our inventories are to the tune of 14 million tonnes, which are stored in the company's warehouses and distributed in several regions of the country, said Al Hammadi.
Speaking at a talk show broadcast on Qatar TV recently Al Hammadi said that the idea of the establishment of QPMC was part of well calibrated plan to ensure supplies of building materials to the local market.
The government, after successfully hosting the Asian Games in 2006, decided that it will form a company aiming to oversee and facilitate the hassle-free imports of raw materials to ensure uninterrupted supply of primary materials in adequate quantities to all future projects implemented within Qatar.
QPMC is also mandated for the efficient port service at the gabbro berths for managing larger volumes of materials import to facilitate the importers.
The company has the capability to design, develop and operate project jetties at developers request for government projects.
It maintains a strategic stockpile of aggregates for the government in Mesaieed. QPMC also produces washed sand and regulates sale of dune sand in Qatar.
Al Hammadi also extended his gratitude to the Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, in addition to the Minister of Economy and Commerce H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani and the Minister of Transport and Communications H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti for their support to QPMC.
Al Hammadi also highlighted that the UAE authorities put undue pressure to Qatari businessmen to suspend their operations in the emirate.
They stopped ships carrying raw materials and not allowed to travel to Qatar. He added that the smallest ships that were stopped carrying shipments were have materials worth over QR5m.
These Qatari investors are now discussing their problems, created by the economic blockade, with the Qatar Chamber's Compensations Commission.
He added that these businessmen invested with the goal to meet the needs of the projects being implemented in Qatar. QPMC in coordination with these investors have found alternative destinations to source these materials.
'It's been more than three months of the siege, and we have proved our ability to meet all the needs of the projects being implemented now, in the future, and beyond 2022.
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