Maritime and Air Transport Preferred as Syrian War Resumes

According to the Lebanese Customs, trade activity at Lebanon’s main customs offices improved during the first ten months of the year. Total imports’ value rose by a yearly 7.02% to $14.69B by October 2016, while exports’ value marginally fell 0.37% y-o-y to $2.49B.

The breakdown of transported goods by customs’ office revealed, traders’ preferences shifted in favor of maritime and air transport, due to the ongoing Syrian war and its consequences on land transport. Hence, Port of Beirut (PoB) ranked first with 69.44% of value of total goods traded, followed by Rafic Hariri Airport, with a share of 22.32%, and Port of Tripoli with 5.51%.

However, by October 2016, both Masnaa and Abboudieh customs’ offices witnessed a decline in the transported traded goods, from 1.69% and 0.61% to 0.19% and 0.71%, respectively, mainly due to their close location to the Syrian borders.

Shares of Total Trade Value by Top Customs Offices

Maritime and Air Transport Preferred as Syrian War Resumes

Source: Lebanese Customs

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