Trailers and heavy equipment businesses are hoping to get a big boost with Qatar expected to launch several major construction activities this year.

Many companies offering trailer services, particularly those from the United Arab Emirates have already set up offices in different parts of Doha, especially in the new retail business location of Barwa Village and Industrial Area.

Trailer businesses in the UAE are still to recover from the global economic downturn and a number of companies there are now eyeing new opportunities in Qatar.

A senior official of a major shipping firm said his company has started getting inquiries from new trailer operators.

Though the volume of containers handled by Qatar’s ports fell by nearly 15% in 2010 compared to the previous year, it is expected to pick up this year in view of rising exports from petrochemical industries.

“Besides, the expected rise in the country’s population will push up demand for consumer products and services and hence there will be bigger demand for container movement,” said a logistics professional.

Though the container and trailer businesses inside the country fell marginally in 2010, there was no decline in the demand for the new trailers last year, said a trailer service provider. “Businesses were hopeful of a recovery in their activities even in the middle of last year and that was evident from the orders placed for the purchase of new trailers,” said the operator.

Most trailer operators feel the work on the major port in Mesaieed, which is expected to start later this year, will give a big push to their activities in the next few years. “Besides the work on some of the major new road, housing and infrastructure projects are also expected to begin this year. This would give a good opportunity to not only those who are already in service but also for newcomers too,” said a long-term operator, having office in the Industrial Area.

Some business houses are also busy making modifications in their existing trailers to suit the new requirements of the market. As a result automobile body builders too have a lot of new works at hand, say sources.

“Besides purpose-built containers, the demand for normal trailers is also slowly going up,” said a manager of an Al Khor-based body building firm.

The official said their company has a number of orders for carrying out modifications on both long and short trailers.

The Al Khor and surrounding areas in the northern region too have reported the arrival of new firms providing specialised trailer services in addition to the companies operating there for several years.

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