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CREATING A BRIGHT FUTURE: Gary Lemke, CEO for the Port of Salalah.

When your competition includes some of the best ports in the world, standing up to rival players is no easy task. CEO Gary Lemke tells us how the Port of Salalah makes it look like plain sailing.

The Sultanate of Oman is a country rich in maritime history, with a seafaring tradition dating over 4000 years.

Housing some important monuments with roots in Quranic history, the ancient city of Salalah and the ruins of the fortified town of Sumharam, a port city that controlled the thriving maritime trade of frankincense back from 100BC to 400AD, remain close by.

From old to new, today's Port of Salalah is giving its ancestors a reason to be proud by carving out a maritime name for itself in the region.

The port is actually located 15km south of Salalah, in Dhofar in southern Oman.

The Sultanate borders with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to the west, the Republic of Yemen to the south, the Straits of Hormuz to the north and the Arabian Sea to the east.

Its geographical location makes it an ideal gateway for the main shipping routes between Asia and Europe, as well as the Middle East.

"The Port of Salalah is one of the fastest-growing terminals in the West Central Asia region. Its strategic location on the direct shipping lane between Europe and the Far East provides easy access to the Arabian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the East African Coast," elaborates Gary Lemke, CEO for the Port of Salalah.

"For vessels serving the Gulf region and the Asia/Europe shipping lane, using the port as a relay hub affords significant time savings over many other ports in the region."

As a deepwater port, the Port of Salalah can accommodate large vessels up to 16m draft, making it the main container transhipment terminal in the region.

The port recorded 1000 cargo vessel calls in 2007, handling around 2.6 million TEU.

This represents a 10% increase on the previous year and with figures for the January to May period of this year already reaching 1.27 million, the outlook for 2008 is very promising.

The port is actually partly owned by the global container terminal giant, APM Terminals, owner and operator of more than 50 terminals spanning across 31 countries.

"APM Terminals is a 30% shareholder and is managing the operation," explains Lemke.

Having such a major benefactor has paid many dividends for the Port of Salalah.

"It naturally adds a lot of value for a port like ours to be a part of a global network such as that of APM Terminals," he emphasises.

"Our partnership gives us immediate access to best practices from some of the world's most successful terminals as well as to some of the most professional and skillful people in the industry."

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