Riyadh - Mubasher: The General Authority for Ports (Mawani) continued to achieve qualitative achievements during 2024, which contributed to strengthening the Kingdom’s position as a global logistics center, from the classifications of its ports in international reports to the opening of major investment projects, in line with the objectives of the National Strategy for Transport and Logistics Services .

"Mawani" explained in a statement that the Kingdom's international ranking in handling container numbers rose according to the "Lloyd's List" report for the year 2024; to rank 15th globally, and 3 Saudi ports were among the 100 largest ports in the world.

She pointed out that Jeddah Islamic Port jumped from 41st to 32nd place globally, while King Abdullah Port advanced from 71st to 70th place, while King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam jumped from 90th to 82nd place .

The statement said that "Mawani" laid the foundation stone and opened several agreements to establish 8 logistics zones and centers in Jeddah Islamic Port and King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam, with a total investment value of nearly 2.9 billion riyals by the private sector.

She pointed out that this is part of the total investments in the logistics areas in the Kingdom’s ports, worth more than 10 billion riyals, which were signed to establish 18 logistics areas affiliated with the Authority. The most prominent of these was the opening of the largest logistics investment by Maersk Company globally in the Jeddah Islamic Port, with an investment value of 1.3 billion riyals and an area of 225 thousand square meters .

She reported that the year 2024 witnessed the completion of the development works of the northern part of Jeddah Islamic Port, in partnership with the Red Sea Gateway Terminal Company, with investments worth one billion riyals, which contributed to increasing the area of the terminal from 700 thousand square meters to 1.5 million square meters, and increasing the terminal’s capacity from 2.5 million standard containers to 6.2 million standard containers.

To enhance the Kingdom ’s position in the maritime navigation network connectivity index and support the movement of national exports and imports, 34 new shipping services have been added, linking Saudi ports with ports in the East and West, in addition to signing several partnership agreements with a number of international ports and national entities in the public and private sectors to qualify and develop human cadres and raise operational efficiency.

She explained that this came in cooperation with: the Ministry of Transport and Logistics Services, the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, SAR Company, the Saudi Logistics Academy, the British Classification Society, Pacific International Lines, the Port of Hamburg, the Hamburg Port Consulting Company, Rivaiva Company, and the Port of Marseille Fos .

In the context of supporting the Kingdom’s presence on the global logistics map, the Port Community System was launched, which aims to provide more than 250 electronic services in the Saudi ports affiliated with the Authority. The year 2024 also witnessed the announcement of the Kingdom’s winning bid to host the UNCTAD Global Supply Chain Forum in 2026, in addition to listing the Jeddah Islamic Port on the London Metal Exchange (LME).