Oman’s Sohar port terminal to be operational by January 2014
Expansion of port will involve total investment of more than $130mn
Sohar Port is expected to begin operations by January 2014.
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The construction of the new 70-hectare container terminal at Port of Sohar will begin in March, 2013 and will be fully operational by the end of January, 2014, according to the CEO of Port of Sohar.
“The construction of the new terminal will start in March, 2013. The soft opening for the terminal will be held at the end of November and the terminal will be fully functional by the end of January, 2014.” said Andre Toet, the CEO of the port.
The expansion will involve total investment of over $130mn, he added.
As part of the expansion deal, container-terminal operator Hutchison Whampoa has signed an agreement for developing the 70-hectare container terminal for Oman International Container Terminal. This will raise capacity from 800,000 Twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) to 1,500,000 TEUs.
“Not much work needs to be done; the beams for the cranes are already in. It’s now about paving the whole terminal and getting the cranes. We are expecting the delivery of the first three new Post-Panamax cranes to handle big ships just after summer,” Toet added.
Located just outside the Strait of Hormuz, Port of Sohar is within easy reach of the booming economies of the Gulf and the Indian subcontinent and has good connectivity to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Al Ain and Muscat. The biggest consumer market in the region, Saudi Arabia, can be reached directly from Sohar.
