Iraq volumes push ACT's throughput
The Aqaba Container Terminal (ACT) on the Red Sea saw a volume growth of 3.4% for the period of August to December 2019 compared to the previous year. The first two months of 2020 confirmed the trend with a growth in import container volumes of 13% and in export container volumes of 6%.
ACT CEO Steven Yoogalingam: “The coronavirus outbreak has prolonged the period of low trading activity well beyond Chinese New Year so we naturally expect lower volumes in March.”
The terminal’s strategy to promote Aqaba as a gateway to Iraq and the wider Levant delivered a sharp increase in containers to Iraq (up 367% compared to the previous year) and thus contributed to the positive results recorded for the past few months.
This development was pushed by the ICRC, the global humanitarian agency for the protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict providing support and emergency relief to Syrian refugees, and Nile Forwarding, the project cargo expert that ships several hundreds of containers into Iraq. (mw)