Port of Salalah Looks to Gemini Network to Revive Traffic

Oman’s Indian Ocean container port at Salalah is fighting a drop in throughput caused by Houthi attacks on shipping by joining a global vessel-sharing agreement headed up by Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd.  The Gemini Network is intended to facilitate use of the Cape of Good Hope route by traffic avoiding the Suez Canal.  

Houthi determination to interdict shipping in the southern Red Sea and in the Gulf of Aden has not been blunted by US and British attacks on anti-shipping sites in Yemen. Indeed, reports suggest that the Houthis have been incentivized to continue their attacks, as these have become a revenue-raising activity, with free passage being offered to some ship owners who are willing to pay a tariff. Moreover, the US, UK and EU have not been able to deploy sufficient ships to suppress Houthi attacks, whilst Chinese and Russian naval vessels in the area stand by and only provide cover for ships of their own nationality.  

The Iranian Navy frigate normally in the area is suspected to be passing targeting information to the Houthis, now that the spy ship MV Beshshad - which used to function in the spotting role - has been withdrawn from its station in the southern Red Sea to Bandar Abbas Naval Base.

As a consequence of the Houthi attacks, container traffic at Salalah has declined by 13 percent in the year to date, slipping to 2.5 million TEU during the first nine months of 2024 compared with 2.9 million TEU moved over the same period last year. Salalah Port hopes to counteract this trend by joining the Gemini Network, acting as a strategic hub for Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd and the network’s 340 container vessels plying the East-West trade route between the Cape of Good Hope and Asia.

The Gemini Network is to be activated early in 2025, at the same time as additional terminal handling capacity becomes available at Salalah’s container port. With the delivery of the last four of ten additional supersized ship-to-shore cranes, the port will have 27 cranes in total, capable of handling 6 million TEU - more than sufficient to handle the 3.7 million TEU which the Gemini Network participating fleet is capable of lifting. Salalah has held its position as the second most efficient container port in the world since 2021, as rated in the Container Port Performance Index published by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence.