Qatar Freight Transport Report 2007

Qatar is becoming the world's largest liquid natural gas (LNG) exporter - and has decided that to deliver those exports it needs the world's largest LNG tanker fleet. The country was in the final stages of its massive LNG-ship acquisition programme, it was reported in August. The Qatar Ship Acquisition Team (QSAT) was understood to have given an indication on the vessels its plans to contract for the huge Qatargas-4 project, which Qatar Petroleum is developing in partnership with energy major Shell. Sources said six to eight vessels would be required. In our new Qatar Freight Transport Report, Business Monitor International (BMI) concludes that maritime cargo volume, measured in million tonnes, will grow on average by 9% per annum over the next five years.

Various factors support this prediction. The single most important is the size of new LNG production expected to come onstream over the next few years, including the Qatargas-4 and RasGas-3 projects. The emirate's economic strong economic growth rate, expected to average 7.4% over the 2006-2010 forecast period, and the general growth of trade will also be contributor factors.

The overall outlook for the freight business is encouraging. According to our projections, air cargo will grow at 10.7% per annum on average, based on good performances by both Qatar Airways and Gulf Air. We estimate that road haulage will grow by 7.7%, just a little ahead of the growth of the economy, while pipeline throughput should be up by 7.6% on average. Across all modes, freight growth will average 8.6% per annum. On the edge of a new gas-led export boom, and with fairly open markets, Qatar leads the Middle East and Africa (MEA) freight transport business environment ranking with a score of 46, compared to a theoretical maximum of 70 and a regional average of 37.8.

The total value of transport and communications GDP will rise to US$2.5bn in nominal terms by 2010, representing 3.8% of Qatar's GDP. The transport and communications sector employed 15,445 people, or 3.5% of the labour force, last year. We see the figures rising to 17,900 by 2010.