A few dozen Iraqis protested on Wednesday against Kuwaiti plans for a new port near Umm Qasr, Iraq’s only deep-water port.

AKnews reports that public committees from Basra organized the protests to show public opposition against the Kuwaiti Mubarak port across the border.

“Everyone knows that Kuwait does not need this port since it has a sufficient number of ports”, organizer Abd al-Lazem al-Tai said. He speculated that the current business conflict between the two countries is rooted in the historical disputes over oil wells in Safwan and South Rumaila.

Mr Tai also criticized the Iraqi government for high taxes that would diminish Umm Qasr’s competitive position.

Today’s demonstrations were attended by fewer citizens than expected. Public committees in Basra had announced on Sunday they would assemble more than a thousand citizens in front of Umm Qasr.

Last week, the Kuwaitis laid the foundation stone for the construction of Mubarak port, just over the border from the site of a new Iraqi ‘Grand Faw’ port currently in construction, and close to Umm Qasr.

According to economists, Iraq’s main port will lose 60 per cent of its business if Kuwait goes ahead with its plans.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered the formation of an emergency committee to travel to Kuwait immediately to tackle the dispute between the two countries.

(Sources: AKnews, Zawya)

A shipping agent in Basra said on Sunday that private sector shipping companies   continued to strike for the sixth consecutive day in Khor Al-Zubair and Umm Qasr ports.

A spokesman in Basra told AKnews that “our demands are focused on activating Law of 51 that the Iraqi Ministry of Transport refrains from its implementation, though it effective on other government institutions since 2003, as well as the abolition of the Law 86 of 1985, which marginalized the role of the private maritime sector.”

Law 51, which was launched by the civil administrator in Iraq , Paul Bremer in 2003 states on the need to find an area of legitimate competition between the public and private sectors with regard to the work of state institutions, while Act 86 of 1985 limits the work of marine agencies.

The spokesman called on the authorities to explain why the government’s shipping company can impose heavy taxes on cargo and vessels without providing any service.

“The representatives of all private companies are determined to continue the strike in case of failure to achieve their demands in activating the role of the private sector.”

Shipping company of the Iraqi Ministry of Transportation declined from making any statement on the grounds that it is not authorized.

(Source: AKnews)

The director of the Iraqi Ports Company said on Thursday that the company signed its second contract with the Emirati company Gulftainer to establish a dry port north of Umm Qasr port, at a cost of $150 million [180 billion Iraqi dinars], according to a report from AKnews.

Khudair Aboud said that the project is part of a plan to upgrade the transport system in Iraq, which includes ports, railways and roads, and this is the first step in the establishment of logistic infrastructure.

“The project includes the construction of the dry port on an area of 300 acres, five refrigerated and unrefrigerated warehouses, the building of management and services building, and construction of roads entering and leaving the port of Umm Qasr and bringing 48 cranes and tankers.”

Keith Nitel, the commercial director of Gulftainer, told AKnews that “the contract value is $ 150 million and the duration of the joint operation is three years; it will be completed in one year.”

“This project is of great importance as it links Iraq commercially with the world through the dry canal that the company will esablish.”

Gulftainer will rehabilitate berth number seven in Umm Qasr port and it started receiving commercial ships since last March. The company’s investment is estimated at about $ 500 million over a number of projects related to ports, transportation projects and local airports.

Iraq has five ports in Basra province (550 km south of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad): Umm Qasr port, Abu Fulus, Khor Zubair, Faw port, Khor Abdullah and al-Amaya oil port.

(Source: AKnews)

Basra’s port of Umm Qasr received a shipment of more than 40,000 tons of rice on Sunday.

According to the head of public relations at Iraq’s ports department, Anmar al-Safi, the shipment was for the Ministry of Trade.

“The ship Captain Hady from the Bahamas anchored at a quay in Umm Qasr with 40,045 tons of imported rice for the trade ministry,” Anmar al-Safi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)

The company dredging Umm Qasr port in Basra province has reached 12 meters deep, which should end Iraq’s dependence on neighbouring countries’ ports, according to the Iraqi minister of transport on Friday.

“The Belgian company’s excavation works reached a depth of 12 meters on Friday, compared to 7.5 meters in 2005 and 8.5 meters in 2008,” Amer Abduljabbar told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

The transport ministry had signed a contract worth 52 million euros with Belgian company Jan de Nul to rehabilitate Umm Qasr port to reach the depths of 12.5 meters.

“The designed depths of 12.5 meters will be announced by late this month, which is a great achievement made for the first time since the first Gulf war in 1980,” said Abduljabbar.

Umm Qasr port was built in early 1970s. Other ports in Basra included Khour al-Zubeir that was build in 1974 and Abu Fallous. All of them are located on the Shatt al-Arab waterway.

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)

A Belgian dredger has arrived at Umm Qasr on Wednesday to work on increasing the depth of the shipping channel.

The vessel is the 18,620 tonne trailing suction hopper dredger, the ‘Francis Beaufort’. It is 142m in length, and has a maximum dredging depth of 71.5m.

The report from AKnews says the project was facilitated by a $250 million [300 trillion Iraqi dinar] loan from Japan.

A 52 million Euros contract to buy (hire?) the ship was signed with Belgian company Jan de Nul.

Another dredger is expected to arrive within the coming days, according to Anmar al-Safi, the director of Information department at the Iraqi ports.

“There is another big dredger that started working in May under the same contract, and the excavators will dredge up 5.6 million cubic meters of mud. The project is expected to be completed in March 2011″, Safi added

The ports in Basra province (550 km south of Baghdad) have 15 excavators; two of them were brought in 2008 to help increase the depth of the river so that larger ships can enter the ports.

(Sources: AKnews, Jan de Nul)

AFP reports that 90 percent of the $1.9m batch of US-purchased computers destined for schoolchildren but allegedly sold off on the cheap have been recovered.

As we reported on Saturday, an unnamed senior official at Umm Qasr port had reportedly misappropriated the gift and auctioned the computers for just $45,700.

But customs chief Nofal Salim denied the claim, saying the sale was in accordance with a legal disposal procedure for all goods not claimed by the addressee 90 days after their arrival in Iraq.

“On May 19 we received a list from the port of Umm Qasr of containers arriving more than 90 days earlier and which had not been claimed,” Salim said.

“No container belonging to the American military appeared on the list.

“However, there were two belonging to a company named Global, although there was no indication that they were destined for the education authorities in Babil province.”

Global did not submit a claim for the containers until August 22, six months after their arrival, Salim said.

“The customs service in the south cancelled the sale and has recovered more than 90 percent of the cargo, which will be sent to the Umm Qasr port where the company can get them back.”

But in a statement received on Saturday the US military disputed Salim’s version of events.

“The disposition of the shipment was unknown until early April when the two containers, containing the computers, were identified through shipping documents,” a spokesman from the US army’s southern division told AFP.

“Once identified, US forces began coordinating transportation for the containers and computers from the port to Babil province.

“During this process the containers were declared abandoned by custom officials and subsequently put up for and sold at auction.”

The US army commander in southern Iraq, Major General Vincent Brooks, called on Friday for “an immediate investigation into the actions of the Umm Qasr official.”

Umm Qasr is a large port, and corruption issues led the British military to dismiss many officials there when they administered the facility following the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

(Source: AFP)

The U.S. military is demanding to know what happened to $1.9 million worth of computers purchased by American taxpayers, and intended for Iraqi schoolchildren, that have instead been auctioned off by Iraqi officials for less than $50,000.

Reports from Associated Press and al Jazeera say the shipment of computers intended for schoolchildren in the central Babil province was auctioned by a senior Iraqi official at the southern port of Umm Qasr on Aug. 16 for $45,700 — before the computers could be sent to the province.

“United States Division-South Commander Maj. Gen. Vincent Brooks called for an immediate investigation into the actions of the Umm Qasr official to determine why computers destined for children to facilitate their education were approved for auction,” said an American Milatary statement.

The port director, Talib Bayesh, told The Associated Press that the equipment had been sitting in the port for more than 90 days and that, according to the law, any items sitting in the port for more than three months without being claimed could be confiscated by the port and sold at public auction.

Transparency International’s 2009 corruption perceptions index ranked Iraq as one of the world’s most corrupt nations – 176th out of 180 countries.

(Sources: Associated Press, al Jazeera)