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Monday, February 06, 2012 22:57 GMT
There will be a significant growth in Qatar’s freight transport tonnage over the next 4 years due to the massive expansion of the country’s LNG production and exports, researcher Business Monitor said in its latest report.
In the 2010-’14 forecast period, Business Monitor expects Qatar’s transport and communications sector to continue outpacing the economy as a whole. It will achieve average annual growth of 9.7% compared with 8.4% for overall GDP.
The total value of transport and communications GDP will rise to US$6.44 billion in nominal terms by 2014, representing 3.8% of Qatar’s GDP. The transport and communications sector employed 30,436 people, or 3.5% of the labor force, in 2009. Business Monitor expects the figures to rise to 34,431 by 2014.
“The bulk of the expected growth in freight transport tonnage will, in our view, come from the massive expansion of LNG production and export, which is already leading to a major expansion of the tanker fleet. We expect maritime cargo to grow by around 10.2% per annum over the next five years, ahead of air cargo, which will grow at 9.8% per annum on average,” Business Monitor said. The researcher estimates that road haulage will grow by 8.9%, just a little ahead of the growth in the economy, while pipeline throughput should be up by 8.4% on average.
According to a Business Monitor estimate, the country’s transport and communications GDP had risen by 14% in 2009, significantly faster than overall GDP, which it estimates to have increased by 7.7%. Qatar’s GDP will grow by a high average annual rate of 8.4% over the 2010-2014 forecast period, substantially slower than the exceptional 11.9% average, registered across the preceding five years, the report said.
“We expect that overall freight tonnage, measured in millions of tons, will grow by 8.3% over the same five-year period. Despite cooler international markets, Qatar is set to experience a gas-led boom, which will boost the freight sector,” Business Monitor said. - Gulf Times