Ammon News - * The volume of handling at Aqaba ports decreased by 9% in 2023
* 1,429 ships docked at Aqaba ports in 2023

Ammon news -Ahmad Alhyari- The volume of handling in Aqaba ports declined during 2023 by 9%, reaching 9.85 million tons, compared to 10.8 million tons in 2022, a report of the Aqaba Company for Ports Operations and Management (ACPOM) showed.

The report, which Ammon News Agency reviewed, revealed that the volume of goods imported through the ports of Aqaba reached 8.97 million tons by the end of 2023, compared to 10 million tons in 2022, with a decline rate of 10%.

In contrast, goods exported through the ports of Aqaba increased during the year 2023, by 9%, reaching 878,352 thousand tons, compared to 806,773 thousand tons, an increase of approximately 72 thousand tons.

The number of ships that docked at the ports of Aqaba during 2023 reached 1,429 ships, and the same number for the year 2022, as the number of ships that docked at the ports in the last month of last year reached about 96 ships.

Most of the ships that docked at the ports of Aqaba were ships carrying passengers, with a number of 847 ships, an increase in their number of 22% compared to the year 2022, but the number of passengers on board these ships decreased by 15% during 2023 to reach 217,351 thousand passengers, compared to 254,785 thousand passengers in 2022, the data showed.

As of February 2023, cruise ships are no longer counted in the statistics of facilities affiliated with the ACPOM, the data indicated.

The number of cars that arrived at the ports of Aqaba to the Jordanian market was about 82,247 thousand cars, weighing 166,549 thousand tons, while the number of transit cars reached 26,406 thousand cars.

The government has taken a number of measures to deal with possible inflationary pressures due to the Israeli occupation aggression against the Gaza Strip and the disturbances in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab.

These decisions came in implementation of the directives of Prime Minister Dr. Bishr Khasawneh to deal with these pressures, maintain food stocks, regular supply chains, ensure price stability, and control the market, especially before and during the holy month of Ramadan.

The measures included setting ceilings for container prices for the purpose of estimating and calculating customs duties to reduce costs, based on the request of the private sector, in order to keep them as they were before October 7, 2023.

The regulatory and competent authorities in Aqaba were also instructed to work 24 hours a day to speed up clearance procedures for goods, especially food.