Technical meeting to study the cost of alternative maritime routes

Industry Minister Dr. Hussein Haj Hassan chaired yesterday a meeting to resume debate on the projected sea route for exports destined to Jordan and Gulf countries as an alternative for Nassib Syrian-Jordanian Crossing. Present at the meeting were former minister Fadi Aboud, Director General of Land and Maritime Transport Hafiz Qaysi, Chairperson and General Director of the Port of Beirut Hassan Koraytem and CEO, General Director of the Investment Development Authority of Lebanon IDAL, Nabil Itani. Haj Hassan started by clarifying that the Council of Ministers has earlier instructed ministries involved to prepare a study of the cost of alternative shipping of agricultural and industrial production by sea, in cooperation with IDAL. Itani gave a preview of the study, noting that agriculture suffered most, followed by food industries and other industrial sectors. He also added that figures showed that agricultural exports in the past six months stood at nearly 250 thousand tons, food industries reached 52 thousand tons against 62 thousand tons for the remaining industries. The number of trucks loaded with agricultural produce totaled 9165 vehicles against 2100 food containers and 2487 trucks carrying other products. For his part, Qaysi pointed that the findings of IDAL and the Ministry of Public Works were similar as to the number of trucks. He added that negotiations with Egypt are in progress in order to reduce bank guarantees requested by the Egyptian side. To note, Egypt has demanded a guarantee of USD 150 thousand for each Ro-Ro shipment, which is close to USD 500 for each truck, a guarantee that will increase the total cost of transportation to around USD 1200 excluding the transport cost of the ferry and the corresponding cost of transport inside the Egyptian territory. In case of agreement, the cost of guarantee per truck will drop to only USD 50. (As Safir, Al Diyar, 21 May 2015)