Port of Beirut is still suffering from the massive explosion on the fourth of August 2020, however, many are wondering how will its infrastructure be restored. Further, the World Bank report estimated the damage to Lebanon’s transport sector and port alone at between $580 million and $710 million.
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 44.51% in the revenues of the Port of Beirut (PoB) to $92.38M by October 2020. We also note that revenues declined due to the drastic fall in trade activity, for instance imports 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 39.11% to stand at 650,496 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU), with Container activity (TEU) alone significantly declining by 42.18% year-on-year (YOY) to 373,737 TEU by October 2020. In its turn, Transshipment activity (TS) slipped by 40.18% YOY to 275,837 TEU over the same period. Moreover, the total volume of imported and exported merchandise fell by an annual 35.91% to 3,683.8 tons.
Accordingly, the transshipment volume of CMA CGM, one of the two major shipping lines operating at the Port of Beirut, fell by 16.07% YOY to 123,187 TEU. Similarly, the transshipment activity of MSC decreased by 57.63% YOY to 86,232 TEU by October 2020. In addition, the local volume of CMA CGM and MSC also fell by 18.63% and 58.34% to 90,708 and 82,827 TEU, respectively, by October 2020.
Port of Beirut Revenues and (TEU+TS) activity by October
