News & Events

  • November 01, 2016

SOHAR awarded Port of the Year at Atlantis event

    • • The Maritime Standards Awards now in its third year in Dubai
    • SOHAR throughput has reached over one million tonnes a week
    • First ship berthed in 2004, now well over 2,500 ships a year

    SOHAR Port and Freezone beat off tough competition from some of the region’s most prominent ports to take home The Maritime Standards Port of the Year Award 2016, at the world-famous Atlantis The Palm Dubai last week. Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, The Maritime Standards is an annual maritime industry event, hosted in Dubai and now in its third year.



    More than 700 of the Middle East and Indian Subcontinent industry’s decision makers, including chairmen, chief executives and directors from all the leading shipping companies, ports, terminal operators and maritime organisations attended the glittering ceremony in The Atlantis Ballroom. The Awards recognise the achievements of organisations and individuals across the region and, in total, 30 different Maritime Standard Awards were presented to winners across a broad range of maritime industry categories.

    Speaking after receiving the Award on stage, Mark Geilenkirchen, CEO of SOHAR Port, said: “It is a tremendous honour for us to receive Port of the Year Award tonight and I am immensely proud of everything that our team has achieved in SOHAR; this Award recognises the enormous efforts of all our staff, terminal operators and tenants who work together tirelessly to continuously raise the bar on our services.”

    Only last week, SOHAR Freezone announced that it had won the prestigious fDi Magazine Free Zones of the Year Award for New Investments. fDi Magazine is part of the UK’s Financial Times Group and SOHAR was the only winner in this category in the Middle East region. SOHAR Freezpne CEO Jamal T. Aziz summed up the sentiment at SOHAR this week: “It is easy to forget just how far we have come in such a short space of time; our first ship only berthed in 2004, and we are now one of the fastest growing port and free zone developments in the world. The winning combination we have here of a fast growing, regional hub Port in a prime location, with an adjacent, customer-friendly and optimally connected Freezone, is the single biggest key to our success. We are honoured that The Maritime Standards Award judges have selected SOHAR as Port of the Year and we will continue to do everything within our power to live up to that high benchmark.”