Port Overview 

(Source: General Admin for Planning & Research / Statistics and Information centre) 

Port Sudan is the capital of the Red Sea State and the Republic of Sudan’s main sea port. It is situated on latitude (19 ` 39) north and longitude (73 ` 13) east on the middle of the Red Sea coast and was established in 1910. It occupies a strategic location in the centre of the west coast of the Red Sea about 1200 km northeast Khartoum and about 260 km southwest Jeddah (in Saudi Arabia Kingdom). Port Sudan is mainly handling general cargo, livestock, cement, containers, oil products, grains, pesticides and cars. 

The Sea Ports Corporation (SPC) is an independent state corporation of Sudan that governs, constructs, and maintains the ports, harbours and lighthouses of Sudan. The company was founded in 1974 by the government of Sudan to be the national port operator and port authority. The Ports of Sudan fall under the Ministry of Transport, Roads and Bridges.  

Website: www.mot.gov.sd   

Port website: www.sudanports.gov.sd   

Key port information may also be found at http://www.maritime-database.com 

Port Picture

Port Sudan is divided into four components. The North Port B quays include 12 berths of a total 1866 meters long with alongside depths from 8.5 to 10.7 meters, handling primarily general cargo, edible oils, and molasses. The five berths that handle general cargo and molasses are a total of 822 meters long with alongside depths from 8.5 to 10.7 meters. Four berths of 365.7 meters with alongside depth of 10.7 meters handle general cargo and edible oils. 

Port Sudan Harbor consists of: 

1. The North Port, which is the oldest Port, consisting of 12 berths with depths between 8.5 meters and 10.7 meters allocated for general cargo, bulk cement, edible oils, and molasses. 
2. The South Port consists of 6 berths, berth #15 for the handling of grains and general cargo, berths 13 through to 18 for containerised traffic. 
3. The Green Port consists of 4 berths with a total lengths of 1226 meters and a depth of 14.7 meters. It is equipped with services for dry bulk cargo and it is able to accommodate vessels up to 50,000 DWT  
4. The Alkhair (Dama Dama) oil terminal can receive tankers up to 50,000 DWT with a draft of 14.6 meters 

Description and Contacts of Key Companies

The main company at the port is the Sea Port Corporation, which is the national port operator and authority.   

Port Performance

The Port is designed and has the capacity to handle Panamax size bulk carriers. 

Vessels calls have decreased by only 15.5% from 755 calls in 2014 to 638 calls in 2017. 

Import traffic has increased by 60% from 6 Million tons in 2014 to 9.6 Million tons in 2017. 

Exports have increased by 532% from 350,409 tons in 2014 to 2,215,005 tons in 2017. 

Discharge Rates and Terminal Handling Charges 

Link to relevant tariff/rates webpage: www.sudanports.gov.sd

The cargo handling and discharge rates at the Port of Sudan are: 

The discharge rates are based on the working norms of the Port and are not those negotiated by World Food Programme. 

Shifts per day 7 hours per shift normal working 6 hours  

(1hrs break each shift) Working hours Saturday/Thursday 

 1st shift 0730 – 1430 

 2nd shift 1530 - 2230 

 3rd shift 2330 - 0530 (Overtime) 

Friday and gazette official holiday port operates on an overtime basis 

 1st shift 0730 - 1200 

 2nd shift 1530 - 2230 

 3rd shift 2330 – 0530 

Berthing Specifications

The two Port Sudan berths handling bulk cement in the North quays are 98.3 meters long with alongside depth of 8.7 meters. The North quays have 27 stores covering 57, 000 M2, designed to handle up to five million tons of cargo per year. The North quays also include two berths of 122 meters with alongside depth of 6.1 meters for barges used to export livestock.  

General Cargo Handling Berths

Port Handling Equipment 

A private company, the Sea Ports Corporation (SPC), manages the port equipment. The SPC is an independent state corporation of Sudan that governs & maintains the ports and the harbours. The Port handling equipment is generally in good condition, but the fixed general cargo “Luffing” cranes with a capacity between 5 and 15 metric tons are in poor condition.  

It is a prerequisite by the Port Sudan authorities that Vessels to load and/or discharge bulk – general cargoes over the quay must be ‘geared’. 

Container Facilities 

Reefer slots are available, in the past years the average number of reefer units that have passed through the Port Sudan amounted to an average of 300 TEUs per year. Reefer capability was not surveyed and/or linked to the cold chain. 

Customs Guidance 

To clear import cargo for consumption within Sudan, nominated clearing agents are also tasked to clear cargo in transit consigned to Chad and neighbouring countries (Ethiopia, ROSS) subject to the established customs rules & regulations and border formalities. 

For information on customs, please see the following link: 1.3 Sudan Customs Information

Terminal Information 

Multipurpose Terminal

The Multi-purpose terminal at the North Quay is able to handle all types of cargo subject to the vessels general configuration and draft. The discharge and/or delivery to/from Ship’s side requires pre-planning to avoid delays. 

The shore luffing cranes (capacity 5 to 15 tons) are however in poor mechanical repair hence the Port Authorities require that vessels arriving at Port Sudan be suitably geared with cranes and/or derricks. Shore winch men are available. 

Oil Handling Terminal - the Elkhair (Dama Dama) oil terminal can receive tankers up to 50,000 DWT with a draft of 14.5 metres. In 2017, 77 vessels used the berth, and 2,222,591 metric tons of petroleum products were imported. There were no petroleum products exported in 2017. Last petroleum exports were done in 2014.  

Grain and Bulk Handling 

There are five vertical silo and one horizontal silo operators within the port as follows; 

1. 50,000 MT capacity situated at Berth 15 - owned/operated by the Agricultural Bank of Sudan. Facility is mainly used for Sorghum exports. 
2. 60,000 MT silo capacity at Green Port area operated by WITA. WITA also has another 70,000 mt silo capacity 3km outside of port. 
3. 90,000 MT silo capacity at the Green Port area operated by SEEN Flour Mills. 
4. 76,000 MT silo capacity at the Green Port area owned by ALKHALEEJ but operated by SEEN. 
5. 140,000 MT silo capacity at the Green Port area owned/operated by DAL Foods/Sayga Flour Mills. 
6. 50,000 MT horizontal silo capacity at the North Quay operated by SEAGRAINS. 

In total, the silo capacity at PORT SUDAN is 536,000 MT. 

The method of discharge to these silo facilities is from ship’s holds with grabs or Pneumatic Buhler evacuators onto hoppers, into bulk trucks which transport and dump the bulk to the respective facility repeatedly. The daily discharge rate can get to 12,000 metric tons pwwd using Ship’s gear with four gangs. 

Most of the silo operators subsequently deliver the cargo bulk to up country mills except Sayga that has a bagging option. The daily bagging rate basis 16 working hours is around 2000 metric tons.  

The silo facilities have a rail connection and there is ongoing works to extend the rail to the quayside of the Green port berths.  

Bagging – Grain Handling

There are two main international bagging operators operating from Port Sudan (PORTSERVE & IMGS) through local partners. These provide the conventional discharge/bagging services alongside ship using bagging plants each having two bagging lines, with sewing machines, scales and escalators to move the bags to landside stowage and/or transport. The mobile bagging machines are also hired out to the vertical or horizontal silo operators whenever they would require to deliver cargo bagged. 

Discharge is mainly using ship gear, ship/own grabs and port labour. Four gangs are usually allocated to a vessel and the daily discharge is around 2500 to 3000 MT/wwd. Usually crane operators, supervisors, labour on the bagging plant, and a mechanical/electrical engineer are on standby at the vessel.  

Conventional Cargo 

The general cargo terminals are situated at the North Port and Green Port. These facilities are able to handle general cargo, unitised cargo, bagged, bulk, vehicles, project and heavy lift/out of gauge traffic. Cargo is discharged from ship’s holds using slings and nets by ship/shore cranes and onto the quayside from where the port labor loads it to trucks/wagons for delivery. There are also several warehouses alongside the berths that have been leased out. 

Containerised Cargo (THC) 

The South Port consists of six berths. Berths 13 to 18 are used for containerised cargos while berth 15 is a bulk silo loading/discharge facility. 

Containers are unloaded from ships using STS gantry cranes onto terminal tractors which transfer them for stacking within the terminal. Delivery from the terminal is by RTG onto trucks that transfer containers from terminal to the customs inspection area. Lift off/on at the customs inspection area is Reach Stackers. After inspection the containers are either loaded on to trucks full or de-stuffed and shifted to the storage area doe empties.  

Main Storage Terminal 

Stevedoring 

Labour working inside the ship and for stacking cargo on trucks is engaged and paid for by the ship agent, clearing agent or transporter. Port labour however handle cargo at the quayside. The wages paid to shore side labour is negotiated with the Unions and tariffs are calculated based on cargo configuration. 

Hinterland Information

Commodities are moved out of the port by rail or road. Delivery is mostly through primary transporters, local shunting and direct deliveries to the main hubs. Direct deliveries have been performed to Khartoum, El Obeid, Fasher, Nyala and Kosti. Direct deliveries from Port Sudan Warehouse to minor hubs like Damazine, Kasalla etc are also possible.  

Port Security

The Port is ISPS compliant. All entry points are secured, manned by Port Police and Customs Officers and access is subject to permits (usually given within one day by the Port Sudan Authorities after presentation of original identification documents and letter of request). 

The fenced and secured port area is ‘customs bonded’: no cargo may enter or leave the port area without the requisite customs and associated documentation being completed and approved through the Customs Controls.  

The ships in the port have their own security and ‘gangway watch’.  

In addition, there are two secondary/tertiary Sudanese Ports on the Red Sea that function as alternative port gateways to the Republic of Sudan, these are Osman Digna port at Sawakin (South of Port Sudan) and Bashair port.