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I have also come across claims that after it been dredged to 20 meter draft and ability to berth 400 meter long 20,000 TEU class (carrying 20 K, 20 foot containers) container ships, by 2040 Gwadar could have the capacity to handle 400-million tons cargo.
A 20 Ft container can carry maximum of about 21,600 kg or about 21.6- metric ton of cargo. Jebel Ali, largest container port in the region, handles about 14-million TEU or about 302-million tons of cargo. Will Gwadar exceed this level?
Gwadar may expand to having a theoretical capacity of 400-million ton, but even if Gwadar port can actually break 100-million ton barrier by 2040, it would be great. Remember Karachi port current throughput is only about 45-million tons
Pardon me but I don’t get the bit about the oil ships.
Having spent all my working life in the petroleum industry, I happen to know a little about oil industry. Most of the vessels anchor at a Fujairah or at Khor Fakkan awaiting fixture. Both of these ports are outside Strait of Hormuz. Having worked and lived at Fujairah for 5 years, I know this for a fact.
For the record current daily rate for VLCC (>200K DWT) is in the $30K range, for Suez Max (160K DWT) about $17K and for AFRA Max (100K DWT) about $12K. http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/WeberWeekly18-17.pdf
Secondly, average sailing time to the northern most gulf ports (Kuwait, Basra, and Kharg Island) from Fujairah is no more than 3 days at 10 knots. Finally, the refinery at Gwadar, if & when it is built would be about 300 K bbl. per day. That is only about 15-million tons per year. We are talking about 400-million tons here.
http://pakobserver.net/china-to-set-up-refinery-at-gwadar/
Gwadar is meant be primarily a shorter route to Chinese Western region. Therefore most of the traffic would be goods traffic that means large number of bulk carriers and container ships.
As of 2011 60% of the bulk carriers were handy size vessels (less than 50K DWT). Additionally total container ships inthe world were 4,677 with carrying capacity of 12.8-million TEU, this gives average container vessel to be 60 K DWT. This means even though Karachi has limited draft, it not necessarily a limiting factor. Given an increase in number of berths, its throughput can increase. Main bottleneck at Karachi port is the congestion on the roads. That is why Port Qasim was developed.
Salalah of Oman, specially built to rival Jebel Ali because it is oust side the Hormuz Straight. It has 18-meter draft and 19 berths; its current throughput is only about 3-million TEU (about 65- million tons).
There are so many unforeseen factors affecting any project that outcome is beyond control. It would therefore foolhardy to pin too many hopes on Gwadar. No single project can be a game changer for a large country. Having 400-million ton handling capacity does not mean that it will actually handle that much volume. Even if Gwadar actually achieves 5-million TEU per annum (more than 100-million tons), it would be a success story. However if Gwadar could achieve close to its proposed maximum, it would make me ecstatic even though I don't expect to be alive by 2040.
I have slight difference here. If you look at all the major port cities around the globe, they need little to no effort from the govt to develop and grow. It is governed by economic fundamentals, port is a hub of trade so it drives growth. Government just need to make good policies and plan the growth of the city so it is systematic and do not turn into a slums. Investors always swarm port cities and when it is one of the world's largest port, you don't even need advertisement....by the way, our enemies are doing that inadvertently .Not a chance. Shenzhen was built by the Chinese and they have developed it as a city. Their interest in Gwadar is only the port and the connection to the port. If Pakistan wants Gwadar to be like Shenzhen then Pakistani's need to get off their own backside and build it up themselves. We won't do that - we don't do things like that. We have an attitude of thinking about what baba ji left for me, rather than what i can build.