Beirut Port’s quay expanded

Container handling equipment to be installed

The first phase of a project to expand the Port of Beirut’s container terminal has been finalized.

The Port has four basins and 16 docks. The expansion involved extending dock number 16. Infrastructure works have been completed and the expanded quay will be ready to operate by September, once container handling equipment is installed.

Two giant cranes and four medium-sized cranes for lifting containers will be added to the terminal. The equipment will be imported from China and delivered starting end-May. Installation will require two months.

Phase one of the terminal expansion will increase its capacity by 400,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent), allowing the processing of 1.5 million TEUs per year.

The total volume of goods imported and exported at the Port of Beirut in 2012 reached 7.2 million tons, up by eight percent year-on-year. The Port’s income totaled $175 million, marking a ten percent yearly increase.

Upon completion of the second and final phase of the Port’s expansion, the container terminal will be able to process up to 2.1 million TEUs per year.

The expansion project was launched in 2009. It is undertaken by Pihl-Hourie, a Danish-Lebanese joint venture at an estimated cost of $130 million.