Bahrain's new Khalifa bin Salman Port (KBSP), also known as the Bahrain Gateway, is set to begin operations in April 2009. Emirates Business quoted Iain Rawlinson, the general manager for sales and marketing at APM Terminals, the company that is to run KBSP, as saying that 'the port will be fully operational at the end of April'. The port's opening was behind schedule. It was originally expected to start operating at the end of 2008. The port is in the Hidd region of Bahrain and has been constructed on reclaimed land. The total cost of the project is some US$530mn. The facility will have container berths, general cargo berths, ro-ro, and passenger faculties, and is to have an installed handling capacity of 2.5mn twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). It is reported that the Bahraini government is interested in expanding the facility's handling capacity to 5mn TEUs, BMI believes that these plans will have to be put into effect before too long, as Bahrain's maritime cargo has been increasing steadily. The new port will also increase Bahrain's container handling capacity. In 2008, just 269,331mn TEUs were handled at Mina Salman, while KBSP will have an installed capacity of 2.5mn TEUs. BMI believes that the new port has the potential to become a major trans-shipment hub for other regional ports, such as Jubail and Damman in Saudi Arabia, Doha in Qatar, Bandar Imam Khomeini in Iran, and with trade volumes increasing in Iraq, that country's ports too. In this our new Bahrain Freight Transport Report, BMI concludes that despite the effect of the global economic downturn on shipping, the country's maritime cargo tonnage is set to grow at around 4.7% per annum over the next five years. Various factors support this prediction. The economy, expanding at around 4.3% per annum, will support freight demand as will foreign trade. With an advanced transport infrastructure and competitive ports, Bahrain will be well placed to maximise sea freight opportunities. The outlook for the rest of the freight sector is good. By transport mode, we expect air cargo, which will also be affected by the global downturn, to expand by an annual average of 3.0%, supported by the eventual recovery of Gulf Air. We expect pipeline throughput to broadly follow just a little behind GDP at 4.1% per annum. We estimate that road haulage will lag a little more, at 3.8% per annum. A boost is likely at the tail end of our forecast period when the proposed causeway to Qatar is expected to come into operation. Bahrain scores above the regional average in our freight industry business environment ranking, doing particularly well on long-term economic risk, and on the competitive and regulatory environments. It is below the regional average on freight transport growth and transport intensity (a measure of foreign trade dynamism). According to our latest estimates, the total value of transport and communications GDP will rise to US$2.63bn in nominal terms by 2013, representing 7.5% of Bahrain's GDP. There are no official figures on the number of people employed by the transport sector.
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