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Jordan Ports
Located on the Gulf of Aqaba, which leads to the Red Sea, Al
Aqabah was Jordan's only port. The modern port, established in the
1950s, was under the authority of the Al Aqabah Ports Corporation,
part of the Ministry of Transportation. The port grew tremendously
in the 1970s and especially in the early 1980s as transit trade
through Al Aqabah became one of Iraq's few lifelines to the outside
world during its war with Iran. In 1985, according to the
government, 55 percent to 60 percent of Al Aqabah's total cargo
capacity was devoted to transit trade with Iraq. Another estimate
placed this figure at 70 percent. Port facilities included
seventeen berths, two of them floating, that were specially
equipped for loading or unloading general cargo, crude oil, and
phosphates. One of the newest berths, completed in 1985, was 580
meters long and configured for handling roll on/roll off cargo and
container cargo. Associated facilities and services included
warehouses and railheads. Five new tugboats were ordered in 1988 to
escort cargo ships in the Gulf of Aqaba, which would bring to
twelve the total number of tugs. In 1987, more than 2,600 vessels
called at Al Aqabah, loading 8.7 million tons of freight and
unloading about 11.3 million tons. The combined total tonnage
represented a 19 percent increase over the previous year.
Jordan has also established a small merchant marine. The
National Maritime Company had four merchant vessels with a combined
freight capacity of 71,400 tons. Also, the Syrian-Jordananian
Marine Transport Company operated two freighters with a combined
capacity of 6,000 tons that transported about 70,000 tons of
freight annually between the Middle East and Western Europe. Since
1985 Jordan and Egypt have jointly operated an intermittent bridge
and ferry service capable of carrying trucks and cars from Al
Aqabah to the Sinai port of Nuwaybi. The service has cut transit
time between Al Aqabah and Cairo in half, to about nine hours.
Data as of December 1989
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