Oman International Container Terminal (OICT) at Sohar Port in the sultanate has registered solid growth over the past 18 months, said a top official.

It is moving into a new era of automation in Sohar, in line with continued growth in container throughput that has more than doubled during the period, stated Albert Pang.

He was speaking at a function to mark the official completion of Terminal C in the presence of Dr Ahmed Mohammed Salem Al Futaisi, Minister of Transport and Communications, and Sultan bin Salim Al Habsi, the chairman of the board of Sohar Port and Freezone and secretary general of the Supreme Council for Planning.

Both the officials also attended the opening of the new Operations Control Centre (OCC), and the inauguration of a state-of-the-art Remote Control Crane Centre at the port.  

The new Terminal C facility allows the remote operation of recently installed quayside cranes that have sufficient reach to load and unload 20,000 TEU ships.

"As a taste of things to come, today saw the first visit of a 13,000 TEU vessel to Sohar Port, the MV MSC Altair at 366 m the largest container vessel ever to visit the Omani logistics hub," observed Pang.   

According to him, the OICT's investments have helped to create the world-class facility that can see working at peak efficiency today.

"The OICT is handling more frequent direct calls from mega-vessels at Terminal C, which can handle the latest class of 20,000 TEU container ships," stated Pang.

In addition to faster turnaround times facilitated through automated loading and unloading systems, OICT now boasts an online truck appointment system, he pointed out.

The new communications software schedules container truck arrival times at the terminal through direct contact with the truck operators and drivers, reducing waiting times and minimising environmental impact by avoiding unnecessary fuel wastage, said Pang.   

Once the Terminal D gets completed, it will increase the port's annual handling capacity fourfold, to six million TEU. The construction work is likely to start as early as late 2018 or early 2019, he stated.

In addition to the new quayside cranes, OICT has invested heavily in new rubber-tyre gantry cranes (RTGCs) to further increase efficiency in the stack yards, he added.

According to Pang, the old container Terminal B is now being fully reconstructed as Sohar Food Zone, a dedicated agro berth with planned facilities for rice, grain and sugar processing.

Planning work is also progressing on Terminal D, a massive new container terminal that will boast a 1.2 km long jetty once commissioned. Sohar now handles over one million tons of cargo a week and more than 2,500 ships a year.

Welcoming the MV MSC Altair to the port, Sohar chief executive Andre Toet, said: "It’s hard to imagine that we only saw our first ship here in Sohar a little over ten years ago."

"The growth in size and efficiency at OICT is phenomenal and we are proud to be able to partner with companies like Hutchison Port Holdings to operate our terminals," he added.-TradeArabia News Service