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By SHARAKAT

Tartous Container Terminal Structure

In 2006, Syrian government-owned Tartous Port General Company signed a 10-year agreement with Manila-based International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI) to develop and manage the container terminal at Tartous in Syria.

The global crisis has created a new opportunity to promote containerisation for conventional cargo

ICTSI subsequently established the Tartous International Container Terminal (TICT) Company and pledged to invest $40m in modernising the terminal, its IT systems and equipment, and to transfer the latest port management skills to its Syrian workforce. The concession deal includes the option of a five-year extension.

Founded in 1987, ICTSI ranks among the world’s top five port companies, operating terminals in Asia, Latin America, Europe and Africa. These include Baltic Container Terminal at Gdynia in Poland, Toamasina Autonomous Port in Madagascar and Manila International Container Terminal, ICTSI’s home base in the Philippines.

Tartous Container Terminal Operations

The coastal city of Tartous lies some 200km northwest of Syria’s capital Damascus. For centuries, it has been a major trade gateway into Syria and the Fertile Crescent. In recent years, however, the northern port of Lattakia has overtaken Tartous in cargo through-put, despite being further from the capital.

Both of Syria’s largest commercial ports have suffered from a lack of investment in equipment, technology and training. This is what prompted the government to seek private sector involvement in port management. TICT took over Tartous port in July 2008.

TICT’s 540-metre berth has a maximum draft of 13 metres – sufficient to handle mid-sized container vessels with a capacity of about 3,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs). The terminal is well-placed to handle Iraq-bound cargo arriving in the eastern Mediterranean from North America and Europe.

Within two years, TICT has secured a customer base that includes some of the world’s top container shipping lines. France’s CMA-CGM, Denmark’s Maersk Line, Swiss-registered Mediterranean Shipping Company and TransContainer of Russia call at Tartous in their east Mediterranean/Black Sea sailing schedules.

The terminal covers a 25-hectare site, which includes a 15,000 square metre warehouse for packing and unpacking containers to comply with Syrian Customs regulations. New X-ray scanning machines make it possible to handle more full-container loads at Tartous.

ICTSI introduced modern handling techniques at Tartous when it took delivery of two Kone gantry cranes in August 2009. Syrian stevedores travelled to ICTSI’s flagship port, Manila International Container Terminal to learn how to operate the new equipment.

Installing new technology has allowed ICTSI to halve handling times at Tartous. It has also introduced computerised billing and track-and-trace systems, which allow customers to follow their shipments’ progress.

Tartous Container Terminal Ambitions

Tartous has the potential to become a strategic gateway for the emerging Syrian market and neighbouring Iraq. ICTSI has pledged to develop a so-called ‘dry channel’ to Iraq, based on rail movements of containerised imports and exports from TICT via the border freezone of Al-Bukamal to Iraq’s Arabian Gulf port at Umm Qasr.

With waiting times of up to 10 days, it is not practical for shipping lines operating fixed-day schedules to call directly at Umm Qasr.

Tartous is positioning itself to serve the Iraq market overland by truck and rail, and claims to offer the most direct and cost-effective route into Iraq for eastbound containers from Europe and North America. Meanwhile, Syria is a fast-growing market in its own right. In the decade to 2008, the Tartous port achieved average annual cargo growth of 12 per cent. As the country opens to foreign trade and investment, analysts are predicting strong prospects for mid- to long-term cargo demand.

Recent years have seen the Syrian government promote Lattakia at the expense of Tartous. TICT aims to counter that strategy with improved handling and says Tartous can offer significant savings over its rival, when it comes to inland haulage costs.

Port managers are working to raise productivity to an average 30 box moves an hour for each gantry crane. Under state management, the terminal relied on visiting ships’ own cranes and barely achieved 12 moves an hour. When TICT took over at Tartous, its mobile harbour cranes raised productivity to 17-18 moves an hour.

The terminal also supports a fledgling trans-shipment operation.

By the time ICTSI’s concession matures, TICT hopes to be handling up to 500,000 TEUs a year, with Iraq accounting for about a quarter of total throughput. To achieve this goal, the terminal will need to add two further gantry cranes.