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Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Port, located north of Jeddah on the Red Sea coast, achieved a 21% increase in container throughput last year, handling 1.69 million teu. As a result it was the one of region’s fastest growing container facilities in 2017.
The privately run port was particularly successful in attracting transhipment traffic which jumped by 28% compared with 2016. The number of vessel calls handled by the port in the year rose by 14%, to 820, up from 716 the previous year.
Jeddah remains Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea gateway, handling 4.15 million teu in 2017. However this represented a 4.3 % decline, compared with the throughput of 4.34 million teu recorded in 2016.
On the Saudi Gulf coast, the port of Dammam handled 1.58 million teu, an 11.2% drop compared with the previous 12 months, when it achieved a throughput of 1.78 million teu. By contrast Jubail Commercial Port (JCP) had a highly successful year achieving a throughput of over 674,000 teu. This was almost 26% higher than the year before, fueled by a 72% upturn in containerised import volumes.
Recently Gulf Stevedoring Contracting Company (GSCCO), part of the Gulftainer group of companies, which operates Jubail Container Terminal (JCT) hosted a Jubail Value Proposition event to identify new business opportunities and examine the investment outlook in the import and export destination.
Ranked the Middle East’s fastest-growing container port in 2017, JCP serves as a hub, not only for industrial exports but also for imports to the fast growing markets of Saudi Arabia’s eastern and central provinces. It is currently a port of call for many global shipping lines with direct weekly services and has one of the fastest customs clearance processes in the country. Speaking at the event, Richard James, managing director of GSCCO, said: “Jubail’s strategic geographic location has enabled it to evolve into a pivotal gateway for international trade and industrial activity, enhancing Saudi Arabia’s economic and trade potential.“
The GSCCO-operated JCT has an annual throughput capacity of around 800,000 teu, and is equipped with five quayside gantry cranes and 10 RTGs. Its 15m alongside draft allows it to accommodate the largest container vessels operating in the upper Gulf region.
