Container Terminal 1 (CT1)
Container Terminal in Qatar

Hamad Port’s First Container Terminal

Container Terminal 1 (CT1) was the first container facility to open at Hamad Port, becoming operational in December 2016 when QTerminals — the joint venture between Mwani Qatar and Qatar Navigation (Milaha) — began operations at the newly built port. CT1 runs a 1,200-metre berth at 17 metres draft, rated for Super Post-Panamax vessels with quay cranes capable of working ships up to 22 container rows across, and a design capacity of 2 million TEU per year across roughly 352,000 square metres of stacking area.

CT1’s equipment includes 1,250 reefer connection points, a meaningful capacity for temperature-controlled cargo moving through Qatar. Container Terminal 2 (CT2), immediately north of CT1, opened later and reached full-scale operations across its phases by December 2020, giving Hamad Port two operational container terminals ahead of a planned third (CT3), which remains in development as part of the port’s phased expansion toward its long-term 7.5 million TEU capacity target.

Clearing Cargo at CT1

Cargo discharged at CT1 clears through Al-Nadeeb, Qatar’s customs single-window system operated by the General Authority of Customs. Maalbardaar coordinates customs filing, duty calculation and inland delivery for containers landing at CT1, the same as it does for Hamad Port’s other terminals — the terminal a shipment actually discharges at is set by the carrier’s service rotation, so confirming which one applies to a specific booking is worth doing before arranging trucking.