New investments to bolster Salalah Port general cargo handling

He explained: “As it takes 7 – 10 days to get the cargo from the mine to the port, it should be brought to the port before the vessel arrives, and would have to be stockpiled in the port. As it happens, some products sit in stockpiles for long periods of time, thus necessitating more space to be created. All of this leads to secondary and tertiary issues.”

For its part, the port is investing in new cargo handling equipment to help assist in the speedy loading of vessels.

At present, the ships use their own gears to transfer general cargo volumes piled up on the berth, aided by wheel-loaders provided by the port.

“We are investing in mobile ship-loaders, which will increase the ship loading speed, thereby alleviating some of these challenges,” said Damsky.

“We also have shore cranes to assist and augment the loading process, and we will have additional handling equipment which will significantly increase the handling throughput.

These will double the capacity of the throughput once the ongoing investments in superstructure are complete.”

In his presentation, the executive also urged authorities to “prioritise” the development of Dhofar’s supply chain infrastructure, which is pivotal to the long-term success of the region’s mining industry.

He cited in this regard the industry’s contribution to the local economy in terms of employment generation, small business development, and socioeconomic growth.

“When you look at the supply chain from the quarries to the port and to the vessels, the port is an important part of the supply chain, but not the only part. So logistics has to be a team effort. The government, mining firms, shipping companies and so on, need to all get involved.”

“It is important to develop Dhofar’s supply chain system with additional investment to ease the trucking constraints, whether it is in the form of rail networks, whether the (government’s logistics development arm) Oman Global Logistics can look at how to manage the trucking companies, the potential to look at 3PL to manage the booking system, and so on,” he added.