Fujairah Port’s throughput returns to ‘normal’ after COVID-19 hit

Throughput at the UAE’s Fujairah has bounced back to levels before COVID-19 slammed business in April, after hitting a record high in February, according to Martijn Heijboer, the port’s business development manager.

May volume picked up after a 25 to 30 percent plunge in April and by August and September throughput was “back at our normal levels, where we left it basically in Q1,” Heijboer said.

He added: “That shows Fujairah is well positioned and provides the right services to cater for this and come back online quickly after such a crisis.”

The pandemic had “very little” impact on bunkering at the port, he said, though it is not growing at the moment, he said. He did not provide figures.

Fujairah is developing an oil and trading hub, with national oil companies Saudi Aramco already based there and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. trading derivatives and developing Murban crude futures. The port has capacity to store 40 million barrels of oil products and about 20 million barrels of crude oil.

Fujairah should also expand into LNG, he said, adding that Horizon was interested in investing in LNG and developing it at Fujairah.

For more information visit www.fujairahport.ae

26th October 2020