RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) reported an 11.66 percent surge in container traffic across its trade hubs during September, handling 732,293 Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit in comparison to 655,831 TEUs a year earlier.
Monthly statistics further show an 18.2 percent increase in exported containers from 198,529 TEUs in 2022 to 234,663 TEUs in 2023, with imported containers scaling up 17.18 percent to 217,933 TEUs last month from 185,986 TEUs twelve months ago.
Sharing a similar trend, transshipments registered a 3.09 percent gain in volumes with this year’s count totaling 279,697 TEUs in contrast to 271,316 TEUs in the prior year.
Cargo throughput was finally back on the growth track with a 2.59 per uptick at 26,058,679 tons as opposed to 25,399,895 tons in the previous year, thanks to 676,017 tons of general cargo, 4,211,684 tons of dry bulk cargo and 13,175,777 tons of liquid bulk cargo.
Likewise, passenger traffic jumped 79.29 percent over the preceding year’s figure of 40,679 passengers to hit 72,934 passengers in the present year whereas automobile imports soared 19.77 percent from 69,341 to 83,049 units in 2023.
Moreover, Mawani’s ports saw 11.83 percent additional vessels dock at its berths with a tally of 1,040 ships contrary to last year’s 930 ships.
However, it was livestock that remained September’s best performing category with an astounding 744.31 percent annual leap from 63,241 to 533,948 cattle heads.
On the contrary, food commodities witnessed a 27.09 percent slide from 2,138,364 tons in September 2022 to 1,559,020 tons in September 2023.
Mawani continues to propel the Kingdom’s development and diversification drive to new heights in its bid to position the country as a world-class logistics destination at the crossroads of three major continents.