Riyadh – Mubasher: King Abdullah Port’s throughput jumped 21% on a yearly basis, hitting 1.70 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent units (TEUs) by the end of 2017.

This increase was attributed to a rise in imports by 5% and exports by 3%.

The Saudi body’s transshipment volume grew 28% in 2017, compared to 2016.

Vessels passing through King Abdullah Port increased 14% to 820 vessels during 2017, from 716 in the year earlier, according to a statement released on Monday.

Based on the new data, the King Abdullah Port ranked second among the Kingdom’s ports.

“The port’s success in reaching second place in container handling in the Kingdom after only four years of operations proves that we are confidently moving towards becoming a main hub on the maritime navigation and logistics map, both locally and regionally,” King Abdullah Port CEO Rayan Qutub said.

The 17-square-kilometre port will be able to handle 15 million tonnes of clean bulk cargo, 1.5 million vehicles of Container Equivalent Units (CEU), and 20 million containers (TEU) every year upon completion.

In 2016, a report by Lloyd's and Alphaliner ranked the port among the 100 largest container ports globally.

The year before, King Abdullah Port was rated by Container Management magazine as the fastest growing port in the world.