Containers at Port of Beirut
increase by almost 20 percent

Handled cargo rose nine percent

Container traffic at the Port of Beirut (PoB) witnessed an improvement in 2022 compared with the previous year with the number of handled containers increasing by almost 20 percent to more than 572,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), according to PoB statistics.

Cargo, both discharged and loaded aboard vessels, increased nine percent in terms of weight to nearly 5.1 million tons.

In terms of value, the merchandise imported through PoB soared 42 percent to $12.2 billion in 2022 compared with the previous year while exports fell 22 percent to $1.6 billion, according to Customs data.

Imports through PoB accounted for 64 percent of total imports across all customs offices in 2022. The county’s overall imports jumped 40 percent to $19.1 billion last year while total exports dropped ten percent to $3.5 billion. Overall productive imports (excluding fuels, precious metals, and scrap) totaled $12 billion in 2022 while productive exports reached $3.3 billion.