DUBAI : Dubai Ports Authority, Maersk, P&O and a Kuwait-Iraq joint venture have been shortlisted for a $1 billion, 10-year contract to manage and develop five Iraqi ports. In a surprise development, the original tender floated by Iraqi authorities inviting expression of interest, has been withdrawn in favour of a new, more comprehensive version. The original "fell short of specifying the details of the scope of work," said Simon E. White, director of business development for Mushrif Contracting Co.

DAMMAM: The proposed passenger terminal at King Abdul Aziz Port in Dammam will be operated and maintained by the private sector. According to the port director, Naeem Al Naeem, the port authority will float a tender for the passenger berth. The decision may take two months, he said. The Port Authority decided to start a passenger ferry between Dammam and Dubai. Naeem heads a committee finalising the plan which may submit its report in a month, according to port sources.

AMMAN :The Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) is expected to announce the name of the winning company for managing the Aqaba container terminal soon, a senior authority official has said. ASEZA's Acting Chief Commissioner Emad Fakhouri said that the authority is negotiating now with the company that submitted the best offer. Fakhouri declined to name the firm, but said: "If every thing goes as scheduled, the name of the company will be announced soon." "If not, ASEZA will start negotiating with the company which submitted the second-best offer," he added

AMMAN: Charges for storing containers at the Aqaba Port will be raised significantly to persuade importers, industrialists and businessmen lift up their cargo quickly, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade Mohammad Halaiqa has said. The higher charges are meant to ease congestion in the container yards surrounding the port area. The minister's announcement came during the opening of a four-day workshop at the Jordan Investment Board to promote major investment sectors.

TRIPOLI :The fall of Saddam Hussein has translated into booming business at the Port of Tripoli, where Iraq-bound car imports have rocketed over the last 10 months. Once viewed as a marginal trade, car shipments to the provincial capital have ballooned by some 700 per cent to 7,000 vehicles per month according to a Tripoli port official. With a seemingly unstoppable demand and vehicle values ranging from $2,000 to $100,000 each, the business has multi-million dollar potential, and traders say it will only increase in the future.

MUSCAT: A giant passenger cruise, Adonia, docked at Salalah Port with 1,776 tourists from various nationalities on board on a short visit to the Sultanate lasting 12 hours. The vessel is on a cruise around the globe. A welcome reception was organised for the passengers of the cruise vessel in the presence of Khalid Bin Musallam Al Rowas, director of tourism, and a number of officials at Salalah Port Services and those concerned with the tourist sector. Visits were arranged for the passengers to a number of tourist and historical sites

ALGIERS: More than 9.1 million tonnes of goods passed through the Port of Algiers in 2003, Algeria’s official news agency cited from Algiers Port Authority statistics. In the first 11 months of 2003, trade at the port reached 926.288 million Algerian dinars ($13.2 million), an 8.9 per cent increase compared to the same period last year. Exports reached AD 1.66 million during the same period, a 26 per cent jump compared to the first 11 months of 2002.

MUSCAT: The Port of Salalah Container Terminal passed another significant milestone in reaching two million TEUs for container ships serviced during 2003, a press release said. The average gross gantry moves per hour (productivity) at the port during the year remained impressive at 30GMPH ensuring that the port of Salalah maintains its reputation as one of the most productive ports in the world. Earlier in the year, the Port of Salalah’s cumulative throughput, since commencing operations in November 1998, exceeded five million TEUs.

A tender to manage and develop Aqaba's containers port was floated by the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), a senior official has said. ASEZA Deputy Chief Commissioner Emad Fakhouri described the step as "strategically very important to Jordan, its economy and its in-transit trade." The move, he indicated, shows the government's keenness to solve the months-old congestion problem which led several international shipping companies to impose "high" surcharges on cargoes bound to and from Aqaba.

MUSCAT: Malik bin Suleiman Al Ma’amari, Oman’s minister of transport and telecommunications, will sign an agreement with Yoshihisa Fujita, director of Japan’s International Co-operation Agency’s (Jica) on the scope of a development study on the Sultanate’s ports. The study is expected to commence early next year. A ten-member study team will engage in the task of studying the activities of the ports, which will formulate national port development strategy in Oman (with the target year of the master plan fixed as 2025) and also to formulate guidelines for the next five years, a development plan in the port sector, commencing in 2006 and running until 2010, the team leader and Jica’s director, Yoshihisa Fujita, has said.

AMMAN: The Zarqa Chamber of Industry has submitted a memorandum to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade Mohammed Halaiqa stressing the need to end losses of industrialists as a result of congestion at the Aqaba Port. The memorandum indicated that the congestion crisis has prompted international shipping companies to impose $975 extra tariffs on each 40-square-feet-container they carry from and to Aqaba. It said that the unexpected rise in imports to Iraq has aggravated the situation.

AMMAN: The Italian-made fast boat, Princess, which shuttles between Jordanian and Egyptian ports, will shortly resume its "operation between both neighbours" after a minor damage it sustained due to a sudden accident while docking at the Aqaba Port recently. The Jordanian-Egyptian-Iraqi owned Arab Bridge Maritime Company, which operates the vessel, "needs to do some repair to the affected part of the craft," company Chairman Alaa Batayneh, said. The chairman said that the accident occurred due to the bad weather conditions, especially sudden strong winds.

MANAMA: A port expansion by Gulf Industrial Investment Company (GIIC) has now been completed at Hidd. It means the Bahraini iron pellets producer can now accommodate more vessels during unloading and make use of new facilities for handling cargo. The expansion comes in the form of two so-called dolphins - or floating ports - which ships can tie up to near the original jetty. "The new facility will provide more operational flexibility to GIIC and optimise the total time ships dock at the jetty," said chief executive officer Chequer Bou-Habib.

BEIRUT: Nearly a year since Beirut’s port authorities hired consultants to draft a tender to bring in an operator, bidding has yet to start on who will run and manage the $150 million container terminal. The terminal, which has been standing empty since late 2000, is needed to attract transit and trans-shipment cargo, as well as increase capacity at the port, which currently only caters to a stagnant domestic market.  

BEIRUT: Nearly a year since Beirut’s port authorities hired consultants to draft a tender to bring in an operator, bidding has yet to start on who will run and manage the $150 million container terminal. The terminal, which has been standing empty since late 2000, is needed to attract transit and trans-shipment cargo, as well as increase capacity at the port, which currently only caters to a stagnant domestic market.  

AMMAN: The Aqaba Ports Corporation's (APC) 2004 budget will be increased to JD44 million from JD31 million in 2003, the corporation's director general has said.
"The JD13 million increase in APC's budget will be used to upgrade the port's facilities to enable it to cope with the increasing amount of cargoes heading to Jordan and its neighbours through the Kingdom's sole sea outlet," said Director General Saud Srour.  This upgrading is also expected to help Jordan prepare its port to receive more cargoes heading to Iraq during the expected huge reconstruction process.

MANAMA: TOUGH port security measures being introduced in Bahrain next year are expected to cost shipping companies millions of dollars to implement. The new International Ship and Port Facility (ISPS) code will come into effect on July 1 and aims to prevent ships being hijacked and turned into floating bombs by terrorists. A report carried out by the organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) suggests the initial cost for all shipping companies around the world could be $1.279 billion (BD483,462).

MANAMA: GULF waters are to get more protection from pollution, with the introduction next year of a new, state-of-the-art, oil-spill response ship. It is being brought in to expand operations run by the Middle East Navigation Aids Service (MENAS), which has its regional headquarters in Bahrain. The announcement came from MENAS chairman John Gyles, who is based at the company's headquarters in London, during his annual visit to the country. He was speaking as he honoured three of the organisation's outstanding employees at a special ceremony held at its Mina Salman headquarters.

MUSCAT: Construction of a cruise and passenger terminal at Port Sultan Qaboos is underway, according to Mohammed Bin Jawad Suleiman, Ports Services Corporation's board chairman. Addressing a function held in honour of former Ports Services Corporation board members and representatives of shipping companies in the Sultanate, Suleiman said an integrated terminal for handling cruise and passenger ships was being built at berth No. 6 of the port. He said the new facility was part of other development plan, which included construction of perimeter fence, maintenance workshop and port main gates as well as installing weighing scale for trucks inside the port premises

AMMAN: The Aqaba Ports Corporation (APC) has concluded an agreement with a German firm to manufacture two mobile cranes at the cost of $5 million in order to accelerate the loading and unloading procedures at the harbour. APC Director General Saud Srour said the cranes are expected to arrive at the port by Nov. 8 expressing hope that the cranes will end the present containers' congestion at the port. In the past few months, the containers' side of the port dealt with 386 vessels laden with a total of 535 large containers. Such a heavy and unexpected task, forced the authorities to assign three spacious yards near the port to house the containers and the huge number of vehicles imported for the Iraqi market.

AMMAN: Jordan will seek Bulgaria's experience and co-operation for the development of its Aqaba port. This was made clear following the meeting of Bulgaria's Deputy Transport Minister Krassimira Martinova and the Chief Secretary of Jordan's Industry and Trade Ministry. Both officials also ratified an agreement for sea trade shipping between Bulgarian and Jordan ports. "Currently Jordan is one of the gates to Iraq. Most of the commodities used for Iraq's post-war construction pass through the port of Aqaba," the chief secretary said.

AMMAN: International shipping companies have decided to double from this week surcharges imposed less than 10 days ago, on containers heading to or leaving, what they called "the extremely congested Port of Aqaba." The Aqaba Port Corporation (APC) described the decision as "unjustified and one that does not take into consideration the interests of Jordanian economy." Importers and exporters now have to pay an extra $300 instead of $150 on 20-foot containers, and $600 instead of $300 on 40-foot containers bound for, and departing from Aqaba. Shipping companies attributed their decision to the fact that ships still face delays of seven to ten days and sometimes more — a matter which results in increased operational costs for the vessels. "The decision is effective for container ships whose lading bills date from and after Sept. 22," Executive Manager of the Jordan Shipping Agents Association Mohammad Dalabih said.

AMMAN: