Back in business

The Bahrain Gateway cost US$340 million and opens for business on 1st April. Sea Freight Middle East was invited to take a look at the ambitious terminal, which experts have predicted will become a major transhipment hub in the Northern Gulf.

If you read any list detailing the top 10 most stressful events to happen in your life, moving house is usually only beaten to the top spot by divorce and family bereavement.

With this in mind, please spare a thought for how the staff at Mina Salman, the APM Terminals operated port in Bahrain must be feeling as they prepare to move into their brand new port facility, the US$340 million Bahrain Gateway at Khalifa Bin Salman Port (KBSP) on 1st April.

Surprisingly none of the staff from APM Terminals in Bahrain Sea Freight Middle East spoke to were tearing their hair out with frustration - most of them actually seemed excited about the move. However, when you look at it logically and compare the old port to the new, their excitement becomes perfectly understandable.

Built in 1962, Mina Salman is showing its age. The difference in the standard of facilities between the port that opened 47 years ago and the Bahrain Gateway at KBSP - designed and built from scratch to exacting specifications on specially reclaimed land - are as obvious as they are staggering.

The managing director of APM Terminals in Bahrain is Steen Davidsen. Originally from Denmark, Davidsen has worked in the shipping industry for over 20 years and his past experience will be essential to ensure the smooth transition from Mina Salman to the Bahrain Gateway at KBSP. Davidsen is in no doubt that his team is ready.

"The new facility is fundamentally different to Mina Salman," he says. "Also, the team we have assembled here is first rate and all of us are determined to make the move a positive experience."

The Bahrain Gateway was conceived by the Bahraini government in the 1990s and the plans were in place long before APM Terminals won the 25-year port operating concession in the country.

After handing over the day-to-day port operations in 2006 the government then formed the General Organisation of Sea Ports (GOP), the governing body dealing with all maritime issues in Bahrain.

The GOP has been working closely with APM Terminals since privatisation. "I never thought they [the GOP] would be so helpful," Davidsen says. "They have made it very clear that we are working to the same agenda."

Bart Noothoven Van Goor is the project implementation manager for the Bahrain Gateway at KBSP and has the unenviable task of making sure that the new port is in perfect working order for the opening date of 1st April. "I am the liaison between Royal Haskoning [the builders] and APM Terminals," he says.

"My background is operations so from this perspective I know what is required. We [APM Terminals] have invested $62 million on the new port which underlines the commitment we have here. If you look at the facilities that are now in place for both container and general cargo you can see exactly where the money has gone."

Davidsen agrees and believes that the new terminal will put Bahrain in pole position to become the number one port in the Northern Gulf. "Nobody can compete with us in regards to facilities in the immediate area," he says.

"There are some good ports and some good port operators, but no-one else has the combination of facilities and spare capacity that we have."

Davidsen's case is compelling. Mina Salman currently handles just under 300,000 TEU of domestic container volume per year. The Bahrain Gateway at KBSP, with its four Post Panamax cranes and 12 rubber tyred gantry (RGC) cranes, can handle 1,000,000 TEU of volume. So can the new port attract the transhipment business to make up the difference?

READERS' COMMENTS

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM