Ports and Merchant Marine
Yemen’s main ports are Aden, Al Hudaydah, Al Mukalla, and Mocha; Aden is the primary port. In addition, Ras Isa serves as the loading point for oil exports, and a small amount of cargo passes through Nishtun.
Facilities at Aden consist of the Maalla Terminal and the Aden Container Terminal (ACT), which opened in March 1999. The port can handle ro-ro ships, container ships, cargo ships, as well as tankers. In November 2003, following the October 2002 bombing of the French supertanker Limburg off the Yemen coast and the resultant dramatic drop in throughput at the Aden port, the Port of Singapore Authority sold its majority stake in the ACT back to the Yemeni government. In June 2005, Dubai Ports International was selected to manage and operate the ACT (and possibly Maalla Terminal) under a 30-year or longer contract; the Yemeni government will remain a minority shareholder. The Port of Aden has recovered well from the 2002 bombing. In 2004 it had annual traffic of approximately 2,000 vessels and 318,901 twenty-foot-equivalent units of containers, mostly handled by the ACT. For 2005, the port handled 317,897 twenty-foot-equivalent units of containers, more than double the amount for 2003. For the first seven months of 2006, the port handled 207, 687 twenty-foot-equivalent units of containers. However, in May 2006 the London insurance market’s Joint War Committee placed Yemen on its list of “areas of perceived enhanced risk,” which is expected to add a war-risk insurance premium to ships operating in the country’s coastal waters. This added premium, coupled with the availability of more secure ports in neighboring countries, will likely result in reduced throughput in Yemen’s ports in the near future.
There are 3 ships (1,000 gross register tons (GRT) or over) totaling 12,059 GRT/18,563 metric tons deadweight (DWT) (one cargo ship and 2 petroleum tankers) (1999 est.).
The International Maritime Bureau reports offshore waters in the Gulf of Aden are high risk for piracy; numerous vessels, including commercial shipping and pleasure craft, have been attacked and hijacked both at anchor and while underway; crew, passengers, and cargo are held for ransom; the presence of several naval task forces in the Gulf of Aden and additional anti-piracy measures on the part of ship operators reduced the incidence of piracy in that body of water by more than half in 2010.
The Yemen Coast Guard was established in 2002. According to the US Coast Guard website, they helped the Yemen Coast Guard with their patrol boats: “US Coast Guard Awards Contract to Build Two 87-foot Protector-class Coastal Patrol Boats for the Yemen Coast Guard. September 11, 2009. The Coast Guard awarded a $28.2 million contract to Bollinger Shipyards, Inc., in Lockport, La., on September 11, 2009, to build two 87-foot Protector-class Coastal Patrol Boats for the Yemen Coast Guard. The Office of International Acquisition (CG-922) at the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) received a request from the Navy International Programs Office (IPO) to procure these boats on May 13, 2009. The USCG anticipates the delivery to Yemen in August 2011. This procurement is the latest in a series of projects, which further strengthen the longstanding relationship between the US Coast Guard and the Yemen Coast Guard. Since 2003, the USCG has delivered eight 44-foot Motor Life Boats, twelve 25-foot Defender Response Boats, and four 42-foot Fast Response Boats (SPC-NLB) to the Yemen Coast Guard. The USCG has also provided 26 mobile training team visits and 54 resident training slots in USCG schools to the Yemen Coast Guard.”
Yemen also has some lighthouses that are maintained for sea navigation by the Yemen Ports Authority, an extension of the “Port of Aden.” A list of the lighthouses, photographs and descriptions of their flashing can be seen at: .
Read more about this topic: Transport In Yemen
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—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
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—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
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