Prince Mohammed inaugurates King Abdullah Port in Rabigh

Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman inaugurated the King Abdullah Port in Rabigh, the Kingdom’s first port to be owned, developed and operated by the private sector.

The port, located in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), has an expected capacity of 20 million containers (TEUs) and will provide over 20,000 job opportunities for Saudis.

The project, set to be among one of the largest 10 ports around the world, aims to position Saudi Arabia as a global logistics hub, in-line with Vision 2030.

The port is expected to see off SAR 600 billion worth of exports in 2020 and will help raise the re-export capacity to an additional SAR 500 billion by 2030, Minister of Transport Nabil Al-Amoudi said during the inauguration ceremony.

“Over SAR 40 billion was invested in the project, generating 7,500 jobs. The development works include building 13,000 residential units, developing 34 kilometers, operating 29 factories, and building 40 plants,” he said.

“King Abdullah Port has become the Kingdom’s second largest port after Jeddah Islamic Port. The private sector invested over SAR 13 billion so far in its infrastructure and utilities,” Al-Amoudi added.

On the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony, the following four deals were signed for the expansion and development of King Abdullah Port:

1) A deal between Ports Development Company and the National Container Terminal Co. (NCT) to expand the container terminal and raise its capacity to 7 million TEUs, making it the largest terminal on the Red Sea coast. 

2) King Abdullah Port and Huta Marine Group signed an effective date notice to launch the drilling of the Northern basin, which will raise capacity by 10 million TEUs, in addition to 15 million tons of bulk cargo.

3) A deal was signed with Petro Rabigh, making the port the main logistics platform for the company’s exports.

4) A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was inked with Saudi Air Cargo for setting up a land-air bridge to link the port and airport sectors for the first time in the Kingdom, with a volume of intra-trade valued at SAR 10 billion by 2030.

King Abdullah Port, spanning over 14 million square meters, features the world’s deepest 18-meter water berths and state-of-the-art processing facilities.

Container-handling increased to 1.2 million TEUs in the first half of 2018, up 50.5 percent year-on-year.

The port is growing steadily and currently has the capacity of 4.3 TEUs, expected to reach 5.1 million TEUs by the end of 2019.

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— قناة الإخبارية (@alekhbariyatv) February 11, 2019