King Abdullah Port to increase terminal capacity: report

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Port, the first privately-owned port, is set to expand its container terminal capacity by up to 1.5 million twenty-foot equivalent (TEU) units, CEO Rayan Mustafa Qutub told MEED on the sidelines of the BreakBulk Middle East Conference in Abu Dhabi.

The port’s container terminal has a current capacity of 3 million TEU. The port’s masterplan expects a total capacity of 20 million TEU.

The expansion will include installing additional new gantry cranes and other new equipment. The planned upgrade budget was not disclosed. However, it may exceed the $2.7 billion that was invested in the development of the port, Qutub added.

The container terminal at King Abdullah Port Run, which is run by Ports Development Co., a JV of Dubai Emaar Properties and local Huta Marine, reported an annual throughput of 1.69 million TEU by the end of 2017, a 21 percent increase compared to the previous year.

It also managed to increase its transshipment volume by 28 percent compared to 2016, while the number of vessels jumped to 820 vessels in 2017, up 14 percent from 716 vessels reported in 2016.