Saudi Maritime Congress applauds $30 billion Saudi investment

Saudi Arabia is experiencing exponential growth in its ports and shipping sectors, particularly in relation to the number of mega infrastructural land and sea projects planned and currently in progress, totaling more than US$ 30 billion within the government’s current five-year plan. Experts presented a series of papers to
more than 200 delegates at the First Saudi Maritime Congress that highlighted the Kingdom’s rapid seaport infrastructure development and overall investment in transport and logistics. According to Bloomberg, new mega Saudi port projects include Jeddah Islamic Port (JIP) which is currently undergoing an expansion project, which will eventually increase capacity by 45%.

The Red Sea Gateway Terminal (RSGT) was launched at JIP with the facility receiving its first vessel, with the RSGT project having a 1.8 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) capacity. The US$ 510 million project has been developed on 400,000 square metres of reclaimed land and has a 740 metre main berth, plus a 390 metre feeder berth.

 Other major projects according to arabnewservice.com include, the seaport in phase one of the US$ 26 billion, King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), which opened earlier this year in January and is designed to become one of the top ten ports in the world. MARAFIQ’s Yanbu Industrial City - Marine Facilities (US$ 210 million) and Saudi Aramco with their Dareen Port Expansion Project (US$ 35 million) which is due to be completed this year.