The crisis at Jeddah Islamic Seaport shows no signs of being resolved soon. The General Seaport Authority has been approached by seaport workers to reconsider continuation of transshipment service due to the lack of necessary facilities at the seaport to absorb the loading containers of incoming ships. Several merchants and customs agents have suggested that the size of the transshipment service offered by the seaports to container ships be considerably reduced to make more space available for local containers. They have called upon officials at the port to overlook the financial gains generated from the transshipment service at least for the time being, Al-Watan Arabic daily said. Ibrahim Al-Ugali, Chairman of the Customs Clearers Committee, said the authorities would do well to agree to this request in order to ease the crisis and its negative effect on the price of essential commodities. Nashwa Taher, Chairperson of the Commercial Committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce, who is responsible for the formation of a joint team to find a solution to this ongoing crisis, has said that seaport, traffic and customs officials have yet to name their representatives. She urged the three agencies to name their representatives as soon as possible. As of now many ships have gone to other seaports in the Gulf to unload their shipments to avoid the overcrowding at Jeddah seaport. __
