News

Maersk Line resumes Qatar services

Source: Lloyd’s List

June 12th 2017

MAERSK Line, the world’s largest shipping line by capacity, has reopened space booking for cargo to and from Qatar via a transhipment service over to the port of Salalah in Oman.

“We will serve Doha for our customers on our own feeder to/from Salalah. The first sailing ex-Salalah is on June 19, 2017 and arrives at Doha on June 25, 2017,” the Danish carrier said in a notice on Saturday.

Last Friday, Maersk Line announced the feeder service as a temporary solution only for shipments already on the water to Qatar.

Maersk Line has confirmed to Lloyd’s List that the Salalah transit is now available to all bookings, but priority will be given to “on water” cargo due to limited space.

“The frequency of this service is every 10 days,” the notice added, “we will update you during next week on rate levels effective 1st July to continue to provide reliable service in this market.”

“Booking acceptance for cargo to/from Qatar is open for all countries except the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and Yemen in compliance with the government guidelines.”

Lloyd’s List reported last week that liner shipping players, affected by the logistics disruption in Qatar, were proposing Sohar and Salalah in Oman as alternate transhipment hubs to Jebel Ali, in order to restore their services in the small Middle Eastern country.

Oman and Kuwait have yet to join the other Gulf states – led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE – in cutting diplomatic ties and blocking all land sea and air contacts with Qatar.

Salalah port reported container throughput of 3.3m teu in 2016, a 29% rise from 2015.

Its current designed handling capacity stands at 5m teu.