# Al Basrah (IQ BSR)

**UN/LOCODE:** IQ BSR  
**Country:** Iraq  
**Water Body:** Persian Gulf; Indian Ocean  
**Harbor Size:** Medium  
**Harbor Type:** River (Natural)  
**GPS:** 30.5167, 47.8333

Anyone shipping containers to southern Iraq almost always ends up at Umm Qasr rather than at Al Basrah (UN/LOCODE IQ BSR): the city port itself, Al Maqal, lies about 110 km inland on the Shatt al-Arab waterway and today mainly handles general cargo, Ro-Ro and bulk such as sulphur and cement. The river port's draft and accessibility are limited, so the bulk of liner and container traffic on the Gulf coast is worked at Umm Qasr. There ICTSI runs the Basra Gateway Terminal (BGT), with about 1 million TEU annual capacity, six berths and post-Panamax cranes; it handled the HMM Daon (16,010 TEU), the largest container vessel ever to call in Iraq. The nearby bulk port of Khor al-Zubair complements it. The mega-project Al-Faw (Grand Faw Port), with first operations targeted around the turn of 2025/26 and an eventual capacity of up to 99 million tonnes a year, adds a new deep-water gateway. Hinterland access is mainly by road toward Basra and Baghdad. For dependable container imports and exports, Umm Qasr (BGT) and, in time, Al-Faw are therefore the right choices.

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*Freight Academy — Seaport Profile: [https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/seaports/al-basrah-port-iq-bsr](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/seaports/al-basrah-port-iq-bsr)*

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