Tripoli Port News

Ukrainian officials on Thursday asked Lebanon to bar a Syrian state-owned cargo ship carrying allegedly stolen Ukrainian grain from docking in Lebanon's Tripoli port, according to the Ukrainian embassy and a diplomatic note seen by Reuters.The Ukrainian mission said in comments to Reuters that the Finikia was transporting 6,000 metric tons of corn, which it considered stolen, from the Black Sea port of Sevastopol.In the note to Lebanon's ministries of transport, finance and economy, as well as the customs directorate, the embassy said the corn had been "stolen from storage units in the Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions".It said…

The first grain ship to leave a Ukrainian port in wartime passed through the Bosphorus Strait on Wednesday en route to Lebanon for a delivery that foreign powers hope will be the first of many to help ease a global food crisis.The Razoni left Odesa on the Black Sea early on Monday carrying 26,527 tonnes of corn and anchored at the entrance of the Bosphorus Strait on Tuesday night.The shipment was made possible after Turkey and the United Nations brokered a grain and fertilizer…

A Syrian ship under U.S. sanctions has docked in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli carrying barley and wheat that the Ukrainian embassy in Beirut told Reuters on Thursday had been plundered by Russia from Ukrainian stores.The Laodicea docked in Tripoli on Wednesday, according to shipping data website MarineTraffic."The ship has traveled from a Crimean port that is closed to international shipping, carrying 5,000 tonnes of barley and 5,000 tonnes of flour that we suspect was taken from Ukrainian stores," the embassy told Reuters."This is the first time a shipment of stolen grains and flour reaches Lebanon," the statement said.Russia has previously denied the allegations that it has stolen Ukrainian grain.

A Ukrainian ship loaded with 11,000 tonnes of wheat has arrived at the port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon on Tuesday, the state news agency NNA reported.The Golden Bird ship has started unloading its cargo, the agency quoted the port director Ahmed Tamer as saying, adding that another Ukrainian wheat ship, Princess Mariam, had unloaded a cargo of 7,000 tonnes of wheat in Tripoli port on Feb. 28.Princess Mariam, which had arrived from Ukraine's Mariupol port, will return to Tripoli with a new wheat cargo, Tamer added without setting a date for its return.Both ships left Ukraine shortly before the Russian invasion, Tamer told NNA on Feb.

Lebanon has awarded France's CMA CGM CMACG.UL a contract to develop and operate the container terminal in Beirut port for 10 years, including plans to rebuild and expand infrastructure damaged in a massive chemical explosion in 2020.CMA CGM said it would invest $33 million, including $19 million over the first two years to upgrade infrastructure at the terminal and digitalize operations, and that it would target capacity of 1.4 million 20ft equivalent units (TEUs), up from 650,000 currently.The deal expands CMA CMG's presence in the eastern Mediterranean.

Leading container lines are diverting ships to Lebanon's smaller terminal of Tripoli after the devastating explosion at Beirut's port that killed 145 people also paralysed vital trade.Lebanon, which imports almost all it uses, relies on container ships to bring in everything from refrigerated food cargoes to clothing and other consumer goods.There is no firm date for Beirut port to re-open, and this is a strain on supply chains.Data from shipping intelligence platform MarineTraffic showed three container ships had arrived in Tripoli in the past 24 hours after being diverted from Beirut…

Turkey said on Friday that an Iranian tanker at the centre of a confrontation between Washington and Tehran was headed to Lebanon after changing course several times, although Beirut said it was not informed of the plan.According to Refinitiv tracking data, the Adrian Darya, formerly called Grace 1, made a U-turn on Friday and headed for Turkey's Iskenderun port - 200 km (124 miles) north of Syria's Baniyas refinery, the tanker's suspected original destination.However, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the tanker, which was carrying 2 million barrels of oil when released at Gibraltar, was headed to "the main port in Lebanon."On the sidelines of a forum in Oslo…

The Libyan coastguard intercepted a humanitarian rescue ship in the Mediterranean on Tuesday, ordering it to sail to Tripoli or risk being targeted, a Reuters photographer aboard said. The Golfo Azzurro ship operated by Spanish humanitarian organisation Proactiva Open Arms was repeatedly contacted by a Libyan coastguard vessel, according to radio transmissions heard by the photographer. "You are sailing in our waters for months now and you are conducting activities that are causing problems to Libyan state sovereignty," said a man who identified himself as part of the Libyan coastguard, speaking in English. "Therefore I ask you to alter your course towards Tripoli port. If you do not obey the orders right now... you will be targeted," the voice said.

Gulftainer has recorded a 24% overall increase on trade volumes in 2012 when compared with the previous year. Its Sharjah ports saw the greatest volumes throughout the year, with Khorfakkan Container Terminal seeing growth of 28 per cent on its 2011 figures with a staggering throughput of over 3.3m TEU. The consistent organic growth of Gulftainer is the largest of any Middle East port operator, with trade volumes more than tripling in the past decade. The company’s portfolio covers three UAE operations, Khorfakkan, Sharjah and Ruwais, as well as in Iraq at Umm Qasr, Recife in Brazil, and the recently acquired Tripoli Port in Lebanon, with further plans across the Middle East and international territories for 2013.

The Lebanese Army recently confiscated weapons on board a ship carrying used cars in the port of Tripoli, according to a news report in Lebanon's 'The Daily Star'. While the port of origin and the ship’s final destination remain unknown, security sources said the Lebanese Army found weapons in one of the used cars aboard the vessel. The confiscated weapons included assault rifles, and the sources said the army was also working on dismantling heavy and medium weapons. The news comes one week after the Lebanese Army intercepted a ship carrying weapons allegedly bound for Syria. Damascus says Tripoli is a hotbed of support for the Syrian opposition and complains about arms being smuggled from the area into Syria.