Sohar Port South expansion project set to kick off

FROM P13 channel for ships to be docked alongside, it is learnt. Part of the dredged material will be used to reclaim the 200-hectare site that will be created as a result of the project.

Sohar Port South is an integral part of the Sohar Port 2040 Master-plan, which sets out a long-term development strategy to sustain the hub’s appeal as a magnet for investment well into the future. Thriving within the industrial port area are dedicated clusters hosting petrochemicals, metals and logistics related investments, as well as a new agro terminal and food zone, that have together garnered around $26 billion in capital inflows into the port.

In an earlier interview published in the Observer (March 19, 2017), Mark Geilenkirchen, CEO — Sohar Port and Freezone, said the hub was targeting $8 billion worth of new investments over the next five years on the back of a new phase of expansion and growth.

Part of this targeted inflow will be generated by the Sohar Port South project, where newly reclaimed land will allow the industrial port to expand its portfolio of companies and add more business to drive growth within the Omani economy he said.

“Sohar will build on the Port of Rotterdam’s extensive experience with similar projects, like the massive Maasvlakte 2 land reclamation in the Netherlands, to achieve the best results during construction,” Geilenkirchen stated.

Maasvlakte2 is a massive civil engineering project involving the construction of a new port and supporting infrastructure on reclaimed land adjoining Maasvlakte. As an extension of the Port of Rotterdam, the project offers around 2,000 hectares of newly reclaimed land for container terminals and other investments — the difference being that the new ventures are operated on the principles of sustainability.