Ammon News - A total of 1,703 ships docked in the southern Red Sea port of Aqaba in the January-November period of this year, indicating an increase of 18 percent from 1,449, the figure reported in the same period of 2020.

Secretary-General of the Jordan Navigation Syndicate (JNS), Mohammad Dalabih, told Petra that the increase was driven by higher number of seafarers from and to Egypt, noting that a total of 233,000 passengers traveled through the port this year, against 72,000 in 2020.

However, Dalabih revealed that the number of containers handled by the port in the 11-month period dropped by 10 percent to 680,000 from the 782,000 recorded in the corresponding period of 2020, blaming higher global freight costs.

Conversely, the Aqaba port handled about 13.7 million tons of inbound cargo this year, compared with 13.1 million tons in the same reporting period of 2020, signaling a 5 percent rise, Dalabih noted.

Moreover, on the number of vehicles imported and re-exported via the import, Dalabih said the January-November figure stood at 101,773, down 2 percent from the figure reported in the same period of 2020.