Port Strategy | Collision course
▻http://www.portstrategy.com/news101/world/middle-east/collision-course
la situation dans la péninsule arabique au prisme du transport maritime, avec une revue de tous les ports de la péninsule arabique et les effets de la #nuit_torride.
Overcapacity, politics and the price of oil are set to collide in the Middle East, writes Stevie Knight.
Cattle aren’t often a metaphor for independence. However, this July’s airlift of 165 pregnant dairy cows to Doha by Qatar Airways sent a clear message to Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and most of all, Saudi Arabia, that Qatar is not about to buckle under this or any boycott.
Whether the diplomatic rift is fully resolved or not, what makes this bovine signal interesting for the region’s ports lies what it could mean for longer term shipping patterns.
Shailesh Garg of Drewry explains that the Saudi-led bloc’s isolation of the country “really wasn’t expected to last... it’s happened before and so this time we thought it would blow over in a few weeks, and things would return to [normal ?]3
Instead, Qatar is digging in. Until June, Jebel Ali and, to a lesser extent, Khor Fakkan, acted as the country’s container transhipment hub with edible produce coming in by road via Saudi. “_It’s almost certainly dampened, if not led to a drop in overall Jebel Ali’s figures,” says Martin Mannion of [?.]
Nearby Sohar in Oman is an obvious beneficiary, though the country’s playing it close to its chest. Oman has earned a name as ‘the Switzerland of the Middle East’, so it’s carefully preserving its neutrality and is coy about how much it’s gained. However, Mr Garg guesses “around half Qatar’s flow is being diverted via Oman – if things continue as they are, it could make an extra 100,000 teu in a year”. Not huge, but still interesting.
Still, food security remains Qatar’s biggest issue. The relationship with India, already a grain provider, was hastily firmed up during the summer and the country’s national line, Milaha Maritime, started running a weekly feeder that takes in Kandla, Mundra and Nhava Sheva.
That rotation is also stopping at the new Hamad facility. While some die-hard conspiracy theorists point to overly auspicious timing, most put it down to coincidence as the port has been functional for some time... although the official inauguration of its 17-metre deepwater port has certainly buoyed Qatar’s assurance in its ability to deal with Saudi et al.