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Beirut Port: Holy waters
The Beirut Port is thriving, the Port Authority’s director Hassan Kraytem, tells Executive from his panoramic office overlooking the shipyard. Its success — the port transferred nearly $55 million of its profits to the treasury in 2014 according to data from the Finance Ministry — is largely due to its growth into a transshipment hub and an increase in container traffic. But a plan to expand the port to increase this capacity has resulted in labor strikes and political controversy.
Whereas today the fourth basin can only handle ships carrying general cargo — commodities such as grain and flour, cars and other goods that are not easily containerized — the plan is to fill the basin and create a multipurpose terminal to handle both general cargo and containers. Filling the port’s fourth basin is the point of contention. Truck drivers shuttling goods from the port to destinations in Lebanon and beyond had called for work on the expansion project to stop, arguing that jobs would be lost, with Bkirki — the seat of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate — and the Lebanese Forces, Kataeb, Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and Marada Movement supporting their cause. It is yet unclear why the Church has gotten involved. Minister of Education Elias Bou Saab, a FPM party official, told The Daily Star in February that in the absence of a president the Church was the best representative of Christians. Local media reports suggested the Council of Ministers would meet in late April to debate the issue but as of yet no compromise has been reached. The Church did not respond to a request for comment.
The Port Authority, meanwhile, argues that the expansion is, in Kraytem’s words, “purely economical — a project that is in the interest of the port and of Lebanon as a whole.” Until the two sides sort out their differences, the expansion is on hold with ongoing discussions that could result in alterations to the original plan.
Reaching capacity
A colorful mix of containers sit stacked on top of one another in Beirut port’s container terminal. Completed in 2000, operation of the terminal commenced only a few years later under subcontracted management by the Beirut Container Terminal Consortium (BCTC). The original capacity of the terminal allowed processing of up to the equivalent of 745,000 twenty foot containers (TEU) per year. Capacity quickly peaked according to statistics available on the BCTC website and by 2010 the terminal was bustling, handling nearly 1,000,000 TEU annually.
Source: www.executive-magazine.com