Riyadh - Mubasher: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and first deputy prime minister Mohammad bin Salman on Monday will witness the opening of King Abdullah Port in the Saudi city of Rabigh.

Location

Located on one of the main international trade routes, King Abdullah Port, owned by the Ports Development Company, facilitates trade between Asia and Europe.

The port, which is the kingdom's first fully privately owned and managed, is in close proximity to Jeddah, Rabigh and Yanbu as well as the residential compounds in Jeddah, Makkah and Medina.

With its strategic location, King Abdullah Port serves Saudi Arabia, the Middle Eastern and Arabian Gulf markets.

Purpose

In 2014, above 6,000 vessels passed through the Red Sea with a cargo capacity of more than 42 million of twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). 

King Abdullah Port was established with the aim of reducing East-West transshipment times by five to seven days.

Ranking

Spanning over 17 square kilometres, the Saudi Arabian port was named among the world’s top 100 container ports and acquired the eighth position among the fastest growing ports in the world in less than four years after starting its operations.

Capacity

Upon completion, King Abdullah Port will have a capacity of 20 million containers (TEU), 1.5 million vehicles of car equivalent units (CEU) and 15 million tonnes of clean bulk cargo each year.

In 2018, the Saudi Arabian port increased its annual capacity by 26% to 2.3 million TEUs.

Meanwhile, the number of containers handled by the port registered 7.23 million TEUs since being operated in the last quarter of 2013.

In addition, the annual capacity of King Abdullah Port grew on the back of the 8% increase in imports and exports compared to 2017.