The Director of Qatar's main commercial port Abdulaziz Nasser Al-Yafei has reported that the facility is operating “at full capacity” with Doha-bound ships transiting through two Omani ports, rather than the Emirati Jebel Ali port.
In an interview with Aljazeera, the state-funded broadcaster in Qatar, Al-Yafei claimed that there has not been an increase in traffic since the beginning of the blockade by Saudi Arabia and its allies.
He added that plans to increase the port's capacity were continuing as scheduled.
Most of the imports for Qatar’s two million residents used to come through its only land border with Saudi Arabia.
It has since been forced to look elsewhere since Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar early last month and imposed air, sea, and land blockade against the country.
Imports have been delivered by air from Turkey, Iran and China since the crisis began.
Turkey has also started shipping products to Qatar by sea.
Aljazeera reported that on Friday evening (July 7, 2017), at least five large ships were docking at Hamad Port, unloading sheep from Australia, food products from Turkey, and a ship carrying cars made in South Korea.
Port officials say that the port received 212 ships in June, and can process 7.5 million containers a year.
Al-Yafei stated: “The only thing that has happened is that the ships in the past were depending on Jebel Ali Port (in Dubai) as a hub port, but now we are cooperating with our brothers in the Sultanate of Oman, and we thank them, of course, for their generous cooperation with us and the quickness of their action.”
