www.libyaherald.com ISSUE 3 JUNE / JULY 2013 BUSINESS EYE PRICE: 5 LD Focus on PORTS & SHIPPING Interview with IMF Banking - Finance - Economy Construction Tripoli Port Renewables EDITORIAL ISSUE 3 JUNE / JULY 2013 BUSINESS EYE www.libyaherald.com CONTENTS 02 Focus: Ports & Shipping From the Editor 04 Interview: President of Ports 06 Tripoli Port 08 Sirte Port 10 Khoms Port Libya imports the majority of its needs and most of these goods Safety at sea 12 come by sea. Its ports are already busy, struggling even, to 14 Aviation handle the flow of consumer items. When the government finally 16 Finance & Economy starts spending the budget to rebuild infrastructure, and foreign contractors restart work on stalled construction projects, the 16 Interview with IMF pressure on the ports asked to handle a flood of building materi- 18 Interview: Gumhouria Bank als, is going to become intense, some fear unsustainable. 20 Interview: United Bank 22 Energy There are two roots to the problem. The first is the decayed state of the ports themselves. Thanks to years of neglect, wharves are 26 Renewables crumbling into the sea. There are simply not enough cranes to 28 Construction handle a substantial increase in container movements. 32 Telecoms The second is the restrictive practices of the dock workers, who Interview: 2nd Deputy Minister CIM 32 operate a single daily shift, as do the truckers who take goods 34 Retail from the docks. The distribution of management functions 36 Exhibitions across different organisations within each port compounds the challenge. With no overall control, no one has the ultimate power to drive through change. And Libyans must pay the high extra cost of ships standing offshore for up to 12 days, waiting to come EDITOR: in and be unloaded. Michel Cousins [email protected] Yet there are good people at all levels in the ports, who really +218 (0)91 770 3242 want the docks to play their part in rebuilding the new Libya, who see how dangerous is a future without radical change. MANAGING EDITOR: The IMF says it expects Libya’s economy will have grown this Sami Zaptia year by 16.5 percent. The bottleneck in the country’s maritime [email protected] trade has to be unblocked to make that happen. +218 (0)91 212 1272 BUSINESS EDITOR: Nigel Ash [email protected] CHIEF REPORTER: Ashraf Abdul Wahab [email protected] Michel Cousins SOCIAL MEDIA: Editor-in-Chief Nihal Zaroug [email protected] SALES AND MARKETING: Yolanda Zaptia [email protected] CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Imad Ali Khan [email protected] Hay Demashque, Al-Hadba Al-Khadra, © The Libya Herald PO Box 83510, Tripoli, Libya The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Libya Herald. Fax: + 218 (0) 21 491 0464 June / July 2013 Business Eye 1 FOCUS PORTS Post-revolutionary berthing pains at Libya’s ports By Hadi Fornaji and Tom Westcott very Wednesday, the Deputy Min- compared to a one-day turnaround at a Tu- are beginning to work longer shifts, thanks ister of Transport, Farid Gheblawi, nisian port. At a charge of $6,000 - $10,000 a to overtime payments. “We’re planning to responsible for ports and maritime day per ship, it is costing the country an esti- have two shifts at Tripoli, from 7am to 3pm transport affairs, is at Tripoli Port. mated half million dollars a day. and 3pm to 11 pm.” It will happen, he insists. EHe is there to chair the Tripoli Port Crisis “We will enforce it.”Moreover, the private Committee which includes representatives Yet waiting ships means major activity. Ghe- sector is to be involved. At Sirte, he says, a from all the organisations in the port as well blawi estimates up to 80 percent of imports contract is going out for dockside operations. as shipping agents and customers. The aim is come by sea and the amount is growing. Most to try and sort out whatever are the current government projects may still be on hold but The LPC, deeply opposed to the private sec- problems. the private sector is busy importing. tor, launched a national strike when a private company was given permission to operate at There is a lot to sort out. Cement is a major import at the moment Khoms port. Says Gheblawi: “There are more with so many small construction projects in than 5,000 people working with LPC. They Talk to any shipper about all Libya’s ports; hand. When the Libya Herald visited Tripoli thought that we’d given a contract at Khoms the complaints are the same — lack of equip- docks many vessels were cement-related. and that they were about to be thrown out, ment, skills, container handling facilities “There is a huge demand at the moment, so first in Khoms, then in Tripoli and Benghazi. and deep water quays to accommodate everyone brings cement”, notes President of mega-container ship. They also complain of the Ports and Marine Transport Authority They blocked the ports for two days, even restrictive practices by the former Socialist Sharafeddin Banghazi, “but we cannot have at Misrata which isn’t run by us. They don’t Ports Company, now the Libyan Ports Com- all the quays handling cement. We are lim- want the private sector to come.” pany, whose employees ensure that ports op- ited by draft and by cargo-specific berths.” erate a single eight-hour shift day. Thus, ves- The Ministry, he said, was talking to work- sels have to wait outside the ports for days Gheblawi accepts the various problems al- ers “to help then understand that the private for a berth. though disputes the figures. Waiting-time sector will use them and probably pay them costs are nearer $6,000-$7,000 a day per ves- more”. The complaints apply to all the ports – Trip- sel and the maximum wait is a week adding oli, Benghazi which is particularly active “We’re trying our utmost to overcome the Misrata is the best port in Libya at the mo- at present, Misrata Freeport, Khoms and problem.” ment and is the only one with two gantry the other, smaller ones, Tobruk, Derna, and cranes and substantial areas of land for stor- Zuwara. It makes Libya the most expensive Time for change age. However, says one shipping agent, the destination in the Mediterranean, shippers Working practices are a problem, but not the equipment is inadequate and the operators claim. They put the average wait at ten days whole problem, he adds, noting that dockers needed better training. Khoms Port 2 Business Eye June / July 2013 FOCUS PORTS Prospects for Tripoli and Benghazi Ports LD 270 million contract with Turkey’s STFA than Libya and ships can be turned around to further develop the new port at Giuliana in a day, has seen an increase of cargos being There is a mixed response to the notion that is being reactivated and improved. The old shipped there and then trucked into Libya. Tripoli and Benghazi ports have reached the port will become a passenger terminal and end of their commercial lives because they marina. A consultancy tender issued for the Gheblawi does not accept that using Tuni- are hemmed in and the surrounding streets project closed on 23 May. sian ports is cheaper. “The cost of storage is can no longer cope with port cargo. up to 50 percent cheaper in Libya than any- Prequalification tenders closed the same day where else in the region”, he says. Yet, it is The main reason Tripoli port is a mess today, for the development of Derna port. A short- clear that unless Libyan ports upgrade and Gheblawi says, is because for years it was list is expected to be published after Eid, says became more efficient, Tunisia could effec- starved of investment and because Qaddafi Gheblawi. tively become Libya’s main port, the place suddenly decided in 2009 to turn it into a where most of its imports are unloaded. passenger terminal, demolishing facilities In the case of Tobruk, the aim is to issue a in the process. It is difficult to expand the tender for a master plan for its development. But there is another side to this. Last month, port, the Deputy Minister agrees, but for the Tunisian shipping company CTN launched moment, the aim is to restore facilities and But Libya may also need berth control. Zliten its first regular weekly sailing from the Tunis make it work as a general cargo port. “We too wants a new port, Gheblawi says, to ser- port of Rades to Khoms. It was a response may make Tripoli a passenger terminal, but vice the town’s development. There is to be to a series of disruptions at the land border not before five or ten years,” he adds. a study. But with Misrata and Khoms ports crossing at RasJedir. nearby, it does not make financial sense. One big problem, he adds, is divided man- If Libya gets it right – and soon – in terms agement. Each port must be under a single Competition from neighbouring countries of significantly better cargo handing in- authority, frastructure and productivity among dock While Libya continues to struggle to get its workers, its ports will be able to more than The longer-term aim is an entirely new port, ports affairs and practices in order, the con- fund their own expansion and upgrades. If already being referred to as “Tripoli West”. cern is that shippers will find way around the not, the ports could lose the very revenues There was talk of it being at Zuwara but the problems that could damage growth.