Port of Beirut is still suffering from the massive explosion on the fourth of August 2020, as the port has not healed yet from the vast destruction. Further, the estimated losses are around $350M, with huge damage in logistics and administrative buildings as per port director “Bassem Al Qaissi”.
To date, many reports show significant shortfall in funding for the reconstruction of Beirut Port and its surroundings, highlighting the fact that the future of the sector depends on the action plans and policies of the new government in the upcoming weeks.
In details, the latest statistics on activity at the Port of Beirut show an annual slump of 44.49% in the revenues of the Port of Beirut (PoB) to $84.84M by September 2020. We also note that revenues declined due to the drastic fall in trade activity, for instance imported goods fell by 50.3% year-on-year (YOY) to $6.13B by July 2020, as per the latest data.
Total container activity including transshipment (TEU+TS) fell by a yearly 39.15% to stand at 587,507 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU), with Container activity (TEU) alone significantly declining by 43.91% year-on-year (YOY) to 330,717 TEU by September 2020. In its turn, Transshipment activity (TS) slipped by 31.70% YOY to 256,790 TEU over the same period. Moreover, the total volume of imported and exported merchandise fell by an annual 36.98% to 3,267 tons.
Accordingly, the transshipment volume of CMA CGM, one of the two major shipping lines operating at the Port of Beirut, fell by 16.11% YOY to 108,412 TEU. Similarly, the transshipment activity of MSC decreased by 53.68% YOY to 85,386 TEU by September 2020. In addition, the local volumes of CMA CGM and MSC also fell by 24.56% and 57.33% to 77,143 and 77,027 TEU, respectively, by September 2020.
Port of Beirut Revenues and (TEU+TS) activity by September
Source: Port of Beirut