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BAHRAIN could become the goods and cargo gateway to the northern Gulf with the opening of the Khalifa Bin Salman Port (KBSP), writes Liz O'Reilly.
The new facility, also known as Bahrain Gateway, which was conceived as long ago as 1995, has been around five years in the building and is expected to be operational by March 2009.
Standing on reclaimed land at Hidd, it occupies a 900,000 square metres site which, although around the same size as the old Mina Salman facility, will have vastly expanded capabilities.
Its storage capacity is more than double that of Mina Salman, which is 45-years-old, and the increase in water depth from 10.5m to 15m enables docking of larger ships.
The new port is equipped with four enormous 61m Post Panamax cranes, which can unload vessels up to 18 cargo containers across, and there is the option to increase this capacity up to 12 cranes as demand grows.
With the KBSP's 1.8km quayside length, this would allow loading or unloading of up to four 300m long ships at a time.
Initially KBSP will have a throughput capacity of up to 1.1million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) and, with room to expand, this could increase to 3million TEUs.
The new port will operate under the auspices of the General Organisation of Sea Ports which was founded by Government order in 2006 with the mission of regulating, developing and promoting the kingdom's maritime and logistics zones and providing world class ports and services.
It will be run, on a 25-year contract, by APM Terminals, one of the biggest port operators in the world, which has invested $62 million (BD24 million) in the project.
The company is already in charge at Mina Salman and will implement the changeover.
At a special tour to introduce the new facility to the kingdom's shipping agents and press, Iain Rawlinson, APM chief commercial officer, explained that regional container throughput across the Gulf has grown steadily in recent years and is expected to treble over the next 10 to 12 years.
"Terminal capacity is a global problem," said Mr Rawlinson. "Even with the massive developments planned in the Middle East over the next five years, this region will have a shortfall of around seven per cent of capacity which means containers and vessels spending longer waiting in port.
"When they are in port they are not at sea which can cause bottlenecks which disrupt the global supply chain."
At present much of the Gulf's shipping requirement is met by Dubai's massive Jebel Ali Port but even this, which is ranked among the top 10 facilities in the world, is struggling with its throughput having increased by 22 per cent this year alone.
KBSP will help ease this load and with its link to Saudi Arabia and the new Qatar road and rail bridge due to begin construction early next year, it could put Bahrain in an ideal position to become a substantial, efficient transhipment hub for the upper Gulf.
Mr Rawlinson added: "It's a question of location, location, location. We are in the ideal position, right in the middle of the Gulf."
Adding to the port's attraction is the Bahrain Logistics Zone, which opened earlier this year and is a customs-free logistics area located behind the KBSP focusing on re-export and value-adding logistics activities such as labelling, testing, repair, component assembly, packaging and repackaging of cargo prior to onward shipping.
And the new facility is also expected to herald a new era for the kingdom in welcoming a growing number of cruise liners. The Gulf is becoming an increasingly popular destination for winter cruising holidays and the Bahrain Gateway will have a dedicated passenger terminal designed specifically to handle cruise ships, which will also be given priority berthing.
Only last week German liner Aida Diva cruised into the kingdom on a week-long Gulf trip taking in Dubai and Muscat, Oman.
The 69,200 tonne vessel can carry up to 2,500 passengers and she will be visiting Bahrain every week from now until April.
The visit was organised by Manama-based Al Sharif Group whose chief executive Ali Al Sharif said: "Last year a cruise ship visited Bahrain carrying 1,400 passengers and because of that success a bigger liner is now being used.
"This shows the enormous potential of this sector in Bahrain and the Gulf."
In fact Bahrain and the UAE, which are both on the cruise route, expect to welcome around 200,000 cruise tourists throughout next year and as many as 350,000 by the end of 2010.
And there's more good news - AMP is employing 625 people of whom 84 per cent are Bahraini with 64 per cent of operational department management hailing from the island.
