Business | Shipping
Jeddah Islamic Port set to get facelift
Jeddah Islamic Port, which handles nearly 59 per cent of Saudi Arabia's seaborne imports, will soon get a facelift and major expansion.
- By Mariam Al Hakeem, Correspondent
- Published: 00:39 March 24, 2008
Riyadh: Jeddah Islamic Port, which handles nearly 59 per cent of Saudi Arabia's seaborne imports, will soon get a facelift and major expansion.
"Studies are underway for the expansion of the port to increase its capacity to handle more containers, and this will be carried out with the participation of the private sector," according to Dr Khaled Bu Bashit, chairman of the Saudi Ports Authority.
He was speaking to reporters after signing a contract with a Saudi company to establish a power project at the port.
The contract worth 181 million Saudi riyals is to set up, renovate, supply and install branch power plants at the annexes of the port.
Excellent performance
He said the Saudi Ports Authority is also carrying out studies about reviewing the procedures and regulations that govern the functioning of the ports under it with the objective of improving their conditions and enabling them to achieve excellent performance results.
"As part of the studies, we started evaluating the types of lifts used at the ports as well as the requirements with regard to employees," he said.
He added that the expansion of the ports is being carried out with the participation of the private sector.
Meanwhile, Sahel Tah-lawi, director general of Jeddah Islamic Port, said that the port achieved excellent performance results last year in terms of both handling containers as well as in implementing expansion projects with the participation of the private sector.
The volume of private sector investments in the port exceeded four billion riyals.
This included buying of equipment to handle cargo, construction of courtyards as well as maintenance of wharves.
The Islamic Port is set to witness its largest expansion.
This includes the ongoing construction of the third container station in the north western part of the port that will cost more than 1.6 billion riyals with a capacity to handle up to 1.5 million containers.
End result
By implementation of the project, Jeddah Islamic Port will become one of the world's major container ports.
"The Islamic Port achieved record growth in the handling of containers during the year 2007, with more than 3.1 million containers, which is an increase of 7.4 per cent compared with the year 2006.
"The quantity of goods handled in 2007 was more than 42.1 million tons, an increase of 4.56 per cent against the previous year," he said.
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