Berbera, Somaliland, December 30, 2006 (SL Times) – The Berbera port manager, Eng. Ali Omar Muhammad in a press conference held in his office Thursday disclosed that the port of Berbera authority had recently made a purchase of $640,000 US dollars worth of dock loading and stacking equipment used for lifting goods and container freight.

The Berbera port authority manager said, the port authority made these purchases to replace the current old equipment that cannot cope with the in coming and out going port freight traffic. Eng. Ali Omar said, one lift crane cost $540,000 alone while the rest of the equipment was $100,000 put together.

He said, his port authority will be making an order for next year for more dock cranes and one pilot tug. He said, in partnership with the Bank of Somaliland and local business firms, the port authority will be putting this money up for this equipment.

The manger of Berbera port authority, Eng Ali Omar told reporters that he often reads from the local press that the port has not acquired a single new piece of equipment since the day’s of Siyad Barre’. He said, ‘to prove you [the press] wrong, let me tell you that the port authority recently purchased four brand new equipment of the type used for lifting, loading and stacking port cargo freight’. He said, one of the equipment bought by the port authority is the type known as ‘Rich Starks’ used for lifting, loading and stacking 40ft and 20ft containers at the cost $540,000 and rest of the equipment came to $100,000.

Eng. Ali Omar said, the port authority is severely restricted in its capacity to invest in new equipment because majority of the equipment used in seaports is very expensive and costly in maintaining the equipment’s services. He also mentioned that Berbera port authority has been deprived of the assistance of world developing agencies like the World Bank, IMF or bilateral funds available from developed governments.

The port manager gave a brief statistics report on the cargo tonnage handled by the port this year 2006 compare to 2005. He said, there has not been a great difference in the amount of import tonnage handled by the port this year which was 650,000 tons and the previous year’s record of 550,000 tons. He said, ‘an increase of 100,000 tons of imports was handled by the port authority in 2006 compared to last year’.

The Berbera port manager did not give numerical statistics regarding livestock exports handled by the port authorities but simply said that ‘the numbers of livestock exported from Berbera port this year compared to 2005 is almost about the same, except for a slight drop in the numbers of live cattle exported this year compared to last year’s cattle exports’.

Source: Somaliland Times