Oman Among Region’s Fastest Growing Shipping and Logistics Hubs
Germany-based logistics specialist DHL is launching a new office at the Sohar Freezone on Oman’s northern coast.
DHL said its air and ocean freight forwarding division DHL Global Forwarding had inked a lease agreement with Matrix Prime Logistics to sublet warehouse space in the Freezone for the distribution of goods in Oman and other global markets.
The Sohar Port and Freezone complex is managed by Sohar Industrial Port Company, a 50:50 joint venture between state-owned logistics group Asyad and the Port of Rotterdam, host port for Breakbulk Europe 2023.
Sohar is the sultanate’s largest port complex.
Other major ports and freezones in Oman include Duqm and Salalah on the Arabian coast.
“DHL is now the only global logistics company with offices in both Salalah Freezone and Sohar Freezone,” said Roy Scaria, Oman country manager for DHL Global Forwarding.
“We are now well poised to offer faster and greener freight services across the region, particularly with the much-anticipated imminent launch of the 303-kilometre Oman-Etihad rail project connecting Sohar to Abu Dhabi.”
Oman has set its sights on becoming one of the region’s major shipping and logistics hubs.
The sultanate is also bidding to become a global hub for green energy production, with several world-scale wind, solar and green hydrogen projects slated to start up by 2030.
As a major plank of its Vision 2040 policy to pivot the economy away from fossil fuels and towards more sustainable sectors, Oman is aiming to produce 11 percent of its electricity demand from renewable sources by 2025, and 30 percent by the end of the decade.
“In terms of opportunities, it is certainly much bigger than many other markets,” Amadou Diallo, CEO of Middle East and Africa at DHL Global Forwarding, told Breakbulk.
DHL Industrial Projects, a unit of DHL Global Forwarding, will be exhibiting at Breakbulk Middle East 2023, taking place on 13-14 February at the Dubai World Trade Centre, UAE.
To register for the event, click here.
PHOTO: Sohar Freezone. CREDIT: Sohar Port and Freezone
