Iraq's post-war reconstruction has been a real bonanza for Lebanese ports, which have seen activity nearly double, in a reminder of their former commercial glory.
The country's harbors on the eastern Mediterranean, mainly at the northern city of Tripoli, have become beehives since the April 9 fall of the Saddam Hussein regime to the US-led coalition now ruling the country.
The ports' activities have been on the rise since the beginning of the summer, with a 22 percent increase of activities at the Beirut port last month from a year earlier.
A record rise of 42 percent was recorded in October in the northern harbor of Tripoli, the closest to Baghdad, a port official told reporters.
Transit is the main activity at the Tripoli port. To face the growing demand, authorities have allocated about US$25 million to expand the harbor.
New cars, trucks, wood and fertilizer crowd the port of Tripoli from where the freight is mainly taken to Baghdad, about 1,000km across the arid Syrian plains and the Iraqi desert.
"Every month, some 5,000 cars are transported to Iraq," said the port official, who did not wish to be identified.
The Lebanese economy, which has been in crisis for years, is benefitting not only from the re-export activities, but from a rising demand for local industrial products, mostly cement.
"Last year, it used to take me less than one hour to drive to my native village of Baino ... Today, it takes me half an hour more because of the never-ending traffic of lorries carrying all sorts of products, mainly cars, toward the Syrian borders," Tripoli resident Ilham Salem told reporters.
Hundreds of cars are transported by land on double-platform lorries, owned by Lebanese, Syrian, Iraqi and Jordanian companies benefitting from a post-war tax break.
Cranes work non-stop, unloading ships and filling up lorries with.
"As far as any taxi driver can remember, this is the largest flow of lorries," recalls George Sayegh, who has long been shuttling along the Beirut-Aleppo roadway.
Port authorities said activities have been on the rise for the past three months and are due to continue their upward trend in the next few years due to the enormous needs of the Iraqi market.
Previously, activity at the Tripoli port rarely reached 500,000 tonnes. But it rose by 23.6 percent to 711,900 tonnes in the first 10 months of this year from 575,600 tonnes in the year-earlier period.
Demand has been on the rise for many products. For example, demand for wood doubled in November to 20,000 tonnes from the months before the US-led invasion of Iraq last spring.
Such a rush for quick earnings through re-export activities has also meant a shortage of many products on the Lebanese internal market.
"Clients are calling us liars, but it is a first: we cannot meet our own needs in wood to satisfy them," explained carpenter Dawud.
Lebanese cement is also heavily in demand because of difficulties suffered by cement factories in Iraq, mainly due to power shortages, said Bashir Ashou, owner a construction firm and one of the leading transportation companies in the country.
After a halt of 15 years, cement exports from Lebanon to Iraq progressively increased to reach 68,000 tonnes over six weeks for the country's two factories.
"This situation is unprecedented," said Ashou, who said Iraq is also resorting to Syria to meet a gigantic demand of 25 million tonnes of cement per year.
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is closely monitoring developments in Venezuela, and would continue to cooperate with democratic allies and work together for regional and global security, stability, and prosperity. The remarks came after the US on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was later flown to New York along with his wife. The pair face US charges related to drug trafficking and alleged cooperation with gangs designated as terrorist organizations. Maduro has denied the allegations. The ministry said that it is closely monitoring the political and economic situation
UNRELENTING: China attempted cyberattacks on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure 2.63 million times per day last year, up from 1.23 million in 2023, the NSB said China’s cyberarmy has long engaged in cyberattacks against Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, employing diverse and evolving tactics, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday, adding that cyberattacks on critical energy infrastructure last year increased 10-fold compared with the previous year. The NSB yesterday released a report titled Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025, outlining the number of cyberattacks, major tactics and hacker groups. Taiwan’s national intelligence community identified a large number of cybersecurity incidents last year, the bureau said in a statement. China’s cyberarmy last year launched an average of 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day targeting Taiwan’s critical
‘SLICING METHOD’: In the event of a blockade, the China Coast Guard would intercept Taiwanese ships while its navy would seek to deter foreign intervention China’s military drills around Taiwan this week signaled potential strategies to cut the nation off from energy supplies and foreign military assistance, a US think tank report said. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted what it called “Justice Mission 2025” exercises from Monday to Tuesday in five maritime zones and airspace around Taiwan, calling them a warning to “Taiwanese independence” forces. In a report released on Wednesday, the Institute for the Study of War said the exercises effectively simulated blocking shipping routes to major port cities, including Kaohsiung, Keelung and Hualien. Taiwan would be highly vulnerable under such a blockade, because it
RSS