APM Terminals Bahrain recognized as a world-class training hub for its specialized local expertise at Khalifa Bin Salman Port

With over ten years of contributing to Bahrain’s maritime trade and being a facilitator of the Kingdom’s economic growth, APM Terminals Bahrain is recognised as a world-class training hub for other APM Terminals global facilities for further developing the technical skills of port operational staff in line with international guidelines and industry requirements.

With the maritime and logistics industry very diversified, the shipping ports and the terminals within them, vary in size, layout, cargoes, and complexity. Given the dynamic nature of the industry, ports are constantly investing to meet the needs of their customers and to strive towards ever greater efficiency of the supply chain. Training is of utmost importance here, and a core element for APM Terminals operated international ports to ensure people and operations are safe and efficient.

APM Terminals Bahrain has been acknowledged for its highly skilled talent who are trained to adapt to complex port operations, market developments, and technological innovations, which is crucial to driving further growth for the maritime and logistics industry. The company’s top Bahraini talent has spearheaded the training of 16 Quay-Crane operators from APM Terminals Abidjan in a special training initiative that was launched earlier this year.

The company’s Short-term Assignments (STA) initiative is another exemplary example of APM Terminals' top-notch talent conducting on-site training at other APM Terminals ports, enabling them to understand more about best practices in port operations and contributing towards building the global network.

Moreover, the company’s collaboration with its sister company, Svitzer, to launch the region’s only Harbour Tug simulator is a strategic investment to have this unique infrastructure located in Bahrain, used for a wide variety of ports, ships, and tugs to integrate interactions and scenarios to train and/or assess tug masters and pilots. This has been instrumental in training new hires of tug masters across the region including Bahrain and Oman and other international markets, Liberia, Bangladesh. Pilots have also been trained from Egypt, Oman, and Sri Lanka. The simulator is also capable of analyzing various weather conditions across different times of day or night, has been used for scenario assessment of Morocco, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.

Maureen Bannerman, CEO/Managing Director, APM Terminals Bahrain, ‘Our people are our biggest asset and pride to have helped us attain this position of a world-class training hub, with a unique position of hosting the region’s only Harbor Tug in collaboration with Svitzer. This is a moment of pride for us and our people to be recognized globally amongst other APM Terminals facilities for our high-quality training standards and unique infrastructure capabilities, which are flexible to be tailored for diverse port operations and industry requirements.”

His Excellency Sh Ahmed bin Isa Alkhalifa, Undersecretary of Ports and Maritime Affairs at the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications commented “This initiative serves yet another testament of APM Terminals Bahrain’s commitment in investing in its human resources. As regulators of the ports and maritime sector, investing and building calibre has always been one of our utmost priorities and one of the key pillars of Bahrain’s Economic Vision which aims to deliver the highest standards of training and transfer of practical skills and we are pleased to see APM Terminals’ sharing and translating this vision with such initiatives.”

Mohamed Taher Aguir – Gulf Cluster Managing Director said, “Simulators provide a safe environment for seafarers and marine pilots to develop skills and experience new approaches to handling operational work. Collaborating with the PMA and APM Terminals Bahrain, we are committed to positioning Bahrain as a center of excellence with the region's first Harbour Tug simulator, a significant milestone for the Kingdom. Our new state-of-the-art marine towage desktop simulator for other shipping ports and O&G terminals across the region. The Khalifa Bin Salman Port is a strategic location to develop Bahrain's future maritime workforce and further enhance the skills of marine officers and pilots across the GCC and EMEA regions with the on-ground experience onboard our tugs.”