Port of Beirut-Public Sector Run by a Provisional Committee for 25 Years
Establishment and Management
The port was officially inaugurated in late 1894. It was run at the time by a French company, ‘Compagnie du Port, des Quais et des Entrepôts de Beyrouth’, under a concession granted by the Ottoman authorities. It was not until in 1960 that the concession was withdrawn from the French company and ceded to a Lebanese company under the name ‘Compagnie de Gestion et d’Exploitation du Port de Beyrouth.’ Headed by Henry Feraoun, the company improved the port and transformed it into a bustling regional hub, a role that was largely undermined by the Civil War.
The concession expired at the end of 1990 and since then, the port has been managed by a temporary committee that was formed by the government until an alternative was found. However, until now, no alternative has been found and what started off as a temporary solution has turned into a permanent one.
Temporary Committee managing the Port of Beirut
Upon expiration of the concession and the hand-over of the port to the state, the government formed a committee tasked with the management of the facility on a temporary basis. However, having operated for such a long time, the committee has assumed more or less a permanent character than a short-lived one. Surprisingly though, it still lacks an institutionalized framework and does not fall under any supervision by the Audit Court or the Ministry of Finance although it manages a public facility and spends public funds exceeding USD 250 million annually.
Since the delivery of the port to the state, three temporary committees have been formed, the last of which is the current 7-member committee which came about in 2002 and has since been in charge of spending the funds it collects. The committee specifies the needed works and awards the corresponding contracts away from supervision. Despite the increase in the port’s revenues, the mismanagement of the Port Authority has resulted in declining state revenues. In 2013, only LBP 30 billion were transferred by the Port Authority to the Lebanese Treasury. The transfers amounted to ‘zero’ in 2012 and LBP 48 billion in 2011, meaning that the state’s share of the port’s revenues is below 10%.
Basin 4
Considerable controversy has recently arisen over a plan by the Port Authority to contract out the filling of the fourth basin at the Port of Beirut to a private company at USD 130 million. This plan has caused all the more uproar because it was approved by the Minister of Public Works and Transport without referring the matter to the Cabinet or the Audit Court since the Authority is not subject to their control. Opponents of the project believe that:
- The port that the State had paid exorbitant amounts to build will sustain damages resulting from the filling of Basin 4.
- Basin 4 was established in 1996 pursuant to Decree no. 9040 and therefore it may not be filled except by a counter decree, not by a decision issued by the Port Authority’s committee.
- Awarding a contract worth USD 130 million without monitoring or a tender process will, according to some estimates, result in squandering roughly USD 40 million to USD 50 million.
- The filling of Basin 4 will reportedly lead to a decline in the traffic of vessels carrying commodities (not containers) such as cars, iron and cattle. This allegation was denied by the Port Authority.
- The Port Authority may expand onto the territory surrounding the port at a lower cost than that of filling of the basin.
Port of Beirut in Figures
The Port of Beirut has a total area of 1.2 million square meters. It consists of four basins each covering 660,000 square meters and is 20 to 24 meters in depth.
These basins accommodate 16 quays that are 5155 meters long in total but not all of them are in use. Their current condition is as follows:
- Quays 1 and 2 are used by the Lebanese Army as a maritime base.
- Quays 3, 4 and 5 are subject to reparation. One of them is used for travel and tourism purposes.
- Quay 6 is 310 meters in length and 11 meters in depth.
- Quay 7 is 300 meters in length and 11 meters in depth.
- Quay 8 is 220 meters in length and is assigned to imported wheat. It has wheat silos used to store imported wheat before selling it to the mills. Silos can accommodate 145 tons of wheat and consist of 48 large containers each with a 2500 ton capacity and 50 small ones each with a 500 ton capacity.
- Quay 9 is 450 meters long and 10 meter deep and is designed for multiple purposes.
- Quay 10 is 379 meters long and 10 meters deep and is designed for multiple purposes.
- Quay 11 is 300 meters long and 12 meters deep and is generally assigned for hardware.
- Quay 12 is 330 meters long and 12 meters deep and is generally assigned for cattle.
- Quay 13 is 340 meters long and 11 meters deep and is designed for multiple purposes.
- Quay 14 is 450 meters long and 11 meters deep.
- Quay 15 is 205 meters long and 11 meters deep and is designed for multiple purposes.
- Quay 16 is 60 meters long and 15.5 meters deep and is designed for multiple purposes.
The Beirut Container Terminal Consortium company is responsible for operating quays 12 to 16.
Roughly 70% of trading between Lebanon and the world occurs through the Port of Beirut. An average of 170 vessels dock in the port on a monthly basis unloading roughly 700,000 tons and shipping roughly 70,000 tons. Average container traffic totals 23,000 every month.
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