New Saudi Port Shows Rapid Growth

Throughput at King Abdullah Port, the first privately owned and operated port in Saudi Arabia, rose eight percent to hit a total of 1.4 million TEU in 2016. The port's traffic has ramped up swiftly over the three years of its operations, and thanks to its deep water and location on the Red Sea, it now gets port calls from some of the world's largest vessels.

King Abdullah Port is already building out its infrastructure to handle the extra traffic, with two more ultra-large container ship berths scheduled to come online sometime this month. Once this phase of expansion is complete the port expects to have a capacity of four million TEU per year.

"King Abdullah Port is . . . taking steady steps towards becoming a prime East–West hub on the main trade route between Asia and Europe,” said Abdullah Hameedadin, Managing Director of the Ports Development Company.

In addition to container capacity, King Abdullah Port is also building out bulk cargo terminals to handle three million tons per year, plus ro/ro facilities for 300,000 car equivalent units per year. NYK has signed with the port to operate the ro/ro terminal. 

The port is located adjacent to the King Abdullah Economic City, a master-planned enclave home to the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and to the Saudi units of several global corporations.