Four ports in the Middle East, from the Red Sea all around the Arabian Peninsula to the Persian Gulf, have outperformed 365 other global ports in the latest Container Port Performance Index (CPPI).
In addition to King Abdullah port, which tops the index, the ports of Salalah, Hamad and Khalifa – respectively in Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates – have been rated second, third and fifth.
The only port placed in the CPPI’s top five performers that is not in the Middle East is the Port of Yangshan in the East China Sea.
The World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence, compilers of the report, said “the ranking is based on (the) time vessels needed to spend in port to complete workloads over the course of 2021, a year that saw unprecedented port congestion and disruption to global supply chains”.
The latest CPPI data is good news, particularly for shortsea shippers like Unifeeder, who recently announced the launch (*) of a direct service between the ports of Jebel Ali (UAE), Mundra, and Maputo.
This service, Unifeeder owner representative for southern Africa Logan Naidoo recently told Freight News, would include the top-ranked Port of Hamad.
Jebel Ali and Mundra, also ranked high on the CPPI, namely 38 and 48, although Maputo fell below the negative-score line, sitting at 321 on the index.
However, it is one of the better performers in the sub-Saharan region, ranking marginally higher than the Port of Walvis Bay (328), Durban (364), Cape Town (365), and Luanda (366).
It was beaten to the punch though by another Mozambican port, Beira (270), and Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth/312).
Although Maputo’s CPPI position is no badge of honour, its performance ahead of regional competitors highlights its burgeoning emergence as a preferred port for outflows from South Africa to markets in the Middle East and India.
Hot on the heels of the Unifeeder service was the announcement by Ocean Network Express (ONE) of its bi-weekly MIM (Mozambique - India - Middle East) service calling Jebel Ali – Mundra – Maputo. This was followed by German line Hapag Lloyd’s announcement of its Maputo Express, linking the port with the exact same market destinations.
