The Omani port of Salalah has registered a 29.4 per cent growth in container throughput in 2016 thus retaining its status as one of the region’s preeminent container transshipment hubs, said a report.

In initial unaudited and unapproved financials published on Thursday, the port announced that container traffic rose to 3.325 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) last year, up from 2.569 million TEUs in 2015, reported Oman Observer.

The spike reverses a downtrend in volumes handled at the port’s container terminal, it stated.

The container throughput had slumped 15 per cent to 2.57 million TEUs in 2015 versus figures for 2014, a decline attributed to consolidation in the liner business.

On the other hand, general cargo volumes, which have been growing exponentially over the past several years thanks to burgeoning mineral-based exports, posted a modest 3.9 per cent increase in 2016, the report stated.

General cargo traffic rose to 13.037 million tonnes in 2016, up from 12.543 million tonnes in 2015, which in turn soared a robust 30 per cent over corresponding figures for 2014.

The gross revenues for 2016 too witnessed a rise surging 11 per cent to RO 54.997 million from RO49.508 million the year before, it added.