Sohar Port’s Oman International Container Terminal (OICT) has announced the official completion of its Terminal C and the inauguration of a remote control crane centre for its post-Panamax quay cranes, designed to handle ships with capacities of up to 20,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units).
Albert Pang, CEO of OICT, said: “Sohar is handling more frequent direct calls from mega-vessels at Terminal C, which can handle the latest class of 20,000 TEU container ships.
“The construction of Terminal D will increase our annual handling capacity fourfold, to six million TEU, and construction may start as early as late 2018 or early 2019.”
The throughput of Terminal C has more than doubled in just 18 months, achieving fast turnaround times thanks to its various automated loading systems.
This month Terminal C also witnessed the first visit of a 13,000-TEU vessel, the MV MSC Altair, which at 366m-long is the largest container vessel ever to visit the Omani logistics hub.
In addition to the four recently delivered quay cranes from the Shanghai-based ZPMC, OICT has invested heavily in new rubber-tyre gantry (RTG) cranes to further increase efficiency in the stack yards.
Alongside its automated loading systems, OICT has achieve marked success with its online truck appointment system, which schedules container truck arrival times with the operators and drivers, reducing waiting times and minimising the fuel costs and environmental impact of idling vehicles.
Sohar Port is also working to fully reconstruct the old container Terminal B as ‘Sohar Food Zone’, a dedicated agricultural berth with planned facilities for rice, grain and sugar processing.
Sohar Port now handles over one million tonnes of cargo a week and more than 2,500 ships a year.
Terminal D, a planned container terminal in Sohar will boast a 1.2km-long long jetty once completed.
