KUWAIT CITY, Feb 20, (KUNA): Kuwait Ports Authority realized a growth of 23,015 million tons in traffic in the last nine months of 2011, specifically between start of April and end of December, which is a growth of 15.9 percent from 2010, said the authority’s financial affairs director Hussein Al-Hafith, Monday.
The official said the volume of incoming and outgoing freight had grown by 19,844 tons in 2010 in comparison.
He added there was a slight decrease in number of docking vessels, a drop of 4.8 percent, with 1,833 ships loading and unloading at Kuwaiti ports in 2011 compared to 1,745 in 2010. Incoming ships came to 92 percent, ships which brought in goods to be unloaded came to 1,611 vessels, and those heading out of Kuwaiti ports came to 134.
Volume of incoming goods came to about 19,595 million tons at an increase of 21 percent compared to 16,197 million tons.
Al-Hafith pointed out the number of incoming and outgoing containers for the same period came to a total of 628,568 compared to 619,523, which is an increase of 9,045 containers. There was also a notable increase in volume of incoming pipe, cement, and gravel products and shipments.