Bahrain’s location and APM Terminals’ ‘best practices’ will combine to see the kingdom establishing itself as the hub for Upper Gulf cargo, a senior locally based official of the company  has said.

Iain Rawlinson, general manager for sales and marketing at APM Terminals Bahrain, said in view of the remarkable advancements in trade in Saudi Arabia, northern Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar there was a very real need for a hub focusing on providing world-class port services for carriers moving in and out of those markets.
That need, he stressed, could well be met by Bahrain, thanks to its central location in the Upper Gulf and the high level of operational practices that would be in force.
“This port is very timely,” observed Rawlinson. “With current cargo growth projections, we see that even with aggressive development plans that many countries in the overall Gulf region have for port infrastructure, container terminal capacities will be stretched in the next four to five years.”
APM Terminals is operating the existing Mina (Port) Salman and has a 25-year concession to manage Port Khalifa Bin Salman, which is under construction at Hidd and scheduled to be commissioned in the third quarter of 2008.  It is being developed as the cargo hub for the Upper Gulf.
“We are bringing in our best practices and making substantial investments into the new port,” said Rawlinson. “Total investments exceeding $62 million in the commissioning phase will be utilised for providing post-Panamax ship-to-shore gantry cranes, RTGs, other handling equipment and IT infrastructure.”
The cranes, manufactured by the Chinese firm ZPMC, will be delivered in May. They have a lifting capacity of 65 tonnes and rise 75 m from the ground.
Rawlinson said APM best practices were already achieving results in Mina Salman, where container throughput in 2007 was 240,000 teu against 210,000 teu in 2006 and conventional cargo throughput around 1.22 million tonnes against 1.12 million tonnes. Giving details, he said it recently achieved 30 moves per hour on a single crane against single-digit performance before APM took over a few years ago, and truck turnover time was 20 minutes compared with 45 minutes earlier.
The Hidd port cranes being bigger, faster and equipped with twin-lift capabilities, performance would certainly be better than what was achieved at Mina Salman, he said.
 The port depth of 15 m at low tide meant it would be able to handle vessels of up to 8,500 teu compared with 2,500 teu at Mina Salman. Additionally, the new port would have transshipment capability of 1.1 million teu per year with the potential to expand that to 3 million teu.
“We are within a day’s steaming time of all Upper Gulf ports which means it is possible to run a comparatively low-cost feeder network with Bahrain as the base providing a great deal of service integrity, which is a real key in today’s very service-oriented logistics industry,” commented Rawlinson.
“With better times we can deliver to carriers a high-quality economic service which in turn means they can deliver to their customers a high level of service integrity while keeping their costs under control.
“All this at a time when around the world port congestion and spiralling fuel costs are leading to ever-greater challenges to the industry to deliver those services that the customer is looking for.”
The hub-in-the-making is being marketed as Bahrain Gateway, signifying its pivotal position in the Upper Gulf.
“The Upper Gulf market is far larger than Bahrain; carriers that opt to use it as a transshipment hub will opt to use more volumes through Bahrain than carriers not hubbing through Bahrain,” observed Rawlinson.
A number of major carriers have shown interest in using the new port, according to the official.
In other remarks he said APM’s commitment towards safety was strong and no unsafe acts were tolerated on its terminals. Safety standards were the concern of every one in the company, from the global CEO down the line, and it influenced all that the company did. APM also worked closely with the local community and believed in employing local staff.
Bahrainisation at Mina Salman is now more than 85 per cent.