Beirut Port inks transshipment deal with France cargo company

Lebanese official said the Port of Beirut would handle at least 100,000 containers of goods per year for the next three years for the world's third-largest shipping firm France's CMA CGM, Lebanon's local newspaper Daily Star reported on Thursday. According to a deal inked by Port of Beirut and French CMA CGM company, the French company began using Beirut as its Eastern- Mediterranean transshipment hub in mid-November, docking its ships here before moving goods on to Turkey, Cyprus and Syria. Authority Chief of Beirut Port Hassan Koraytem expressed that with the help of CMA CGM, the port will handle about 600,000 containers units this year and could surpass 700,000 containers next year. About 480,000 containers passed through the port in 2005, and transshipment is the chief reason volume increased this year despite the port's closure for two months during a 34-day-long Israel-Hezbollah conflict in summer, said Elie Zakhour, president of the Chamber of International Navigation.