01-08-2025
Beirut's port handled 100,000 containers in July, record since 2019
Nearly 100,000 standard containers (TEU) passed through the Port of Beirut in July, marking a new record since 2019, the last year the port operated at full capacity before the economic crisis and the Aug. 4, 2020, explosion affected its activity.
This figure represents an increase of about 39 percent compared to the same month in 2024, which recorded 72,000 containers. "This is the highest level reached by the port in terms of container terminal activity since 2019," management emphasized in a statement, estimating that this performance "reflects a growing operational dynamic and confirms the port's return to its role as an essential platform on the map of maritime transport in the eastern Mediterranean."
This "progress" is explained, according to management, by "the improvement of operational infrastructure, the efficiency of services and the renewed confidence of shipping companies that are gradually reintegrating the Port of Beirut into their regular routes."
Along with Tripoli, the capital's port is one of only two port facilities in Lebanon equipped with giant cranes capable of handling container ships. In the north of the country, the Port of Tripoli has welcomed "for the second time in two weeks, one of the largest container ships in the world," said its director, Ahmad Tamer.
In a separate statement, he specified that 'about 2,600 standard containers are expected to be loaded and unloaded from the CMA CGM Cobalt, including 1,200 destined for the local market.' He also reported a 20 percent increase in container traffic in Tripoli since the beginning of the year, compared to the same period in 2024.
"This record, since the creation of the terminal, reflects merchants' confidence in the efficiency and quality of the services offered," Tamer noted, who sees in it a "strategic opportunity" to "strengthen the national economy, generate new resources for the public treasury and create jobs in the Tripoli and North Lebanon region."
The management of container terminals in both ports has been handled by the French group CMA CGM since 2021 in Tripoli and since 2022 in Beirut. According to the most recent official data cited this week by Lebanon this Week, the Port of Beirut handled 1.96 million tons of freight in the first four months of 2025, an increase of 18.2 percent compared to the same period in 2024. No less than 87.2 percent of this total consisted of imports. At the Port of Tripoli, total freight reached 798,000 tons, down 2.3 percent, with imports making up 78.6 percent of the total.
