Damietta Port handles 13 vessels, 35,732 tonnes of cargo in 24 hours

Damietta Port received 13 vessels and recorded the departure of nine ships over a 24-hour period, bringing the total number of vessels at the port to 32, according to the Damietta Port Authority. Reported by Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) on August 1, 2026, the port handled 15,217 tonnes of export cargo, including beet pulp feed, gypsum, bagged cement, urea and other goods. Import cargo amounted to 20,515 tonnes, comprising scrap metal, beech wood, steel, rice and plywood.

Container traffic during the reporting period included 550 export containers, 242 import containers and 3,912 transit containers. The port’s public grain silos held 84,641 tonnes of wheat, while private storage facilities contained a further 44,430 tonnes. Truck activity at the port totalled 2,798 movements during the reporting period.

Meanwhile, the Gallipoli Seaways Ro-Ro vessel departed Damietta Port for Trieste, Italy, carrying 3,704 tonnes of cargo. The shipment included agricultural products, textiles, garments, electrical cables, automotive parts, buses, machinery and industrial equipment. According to SIS, cargo carried by the vessel was bound for Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Sweden, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary. Transit shipments were destined for markets in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain.

The latest cargo activity comes shortly after a fire involving two vessels at Damietta Port on July 29. According to SIS, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said emergency procedures were activated immediately after the incident. The regasification vessel, carrying pressurised natural gas, was separated from the adjacent storage vessel and towed more than 3.5 kilometres offshore by four Egyptian tugboats as a precaution. Firefighting operations lasted 12 hours and involved chemical agents, aircraft and drones.

Despite the incident, 15 cargo vessels continued moving through the port, according to Madbouly. The fire was fully extinguished by early morning, while the adjacent storage vessel sustained no damage and the regasification vessel suffered limited impact. Madbouly said the national energy grid remained unaffected, with alternative measures activated to maintain supplies. Security teams later confirmed that the incident was caused by a drone attack, with recovered debris undergoing technical analysis.