RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – Container throughput the Kingdom’s ports continued its upward year-on-year movement during October 2022, soaring to 694,517 twenty-foot equivalent unit at 15.33 percent from last year’s total of 602,210 TEUs.
Optimizing operational efficiency and attracting big-ticket investments have remained a major focus for the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) in its journey to stay ahead of developments in the maritime and logistics industries, upgrade port facilities, and boost customer satisfaction.
A detailed view of last month’s container numbers reveal a 17.75 percent rise in exported boxes at 202,030 TEUs in comparison to 171,579 TEUs in 2021.
Similarly, imported containers were up by 23.02 percent to 214,174 TEUs from 174,090 TEUs a year earlier while transshipments gained 8.49 percent to hit 278,313 TEUs against last year’s 256,541 TEUs.
On the other hand, cargo throughput witnessed a 3.34 percent spike from 25,858,562 tons in October 2021 to 26,722,044 tons this year.
Growth remained the dominant trend across most cargo categories, with general cargo leapfrogging by 85.51 percent to 938,390 tons from 505,855 tons last year and dry bulk cargo surging to 4,942,911 tons at 20.89 percent in contrast to 4,088,668 tons during 2021.
However, this was negated by liquid bulk cargo, which plunged by 6.81 percent to 13,638,345 tons from 14,634,481 tons the prior year.
October’s statistics further show around 1,411 vessels docking at Saudi ports, which represents a 28.04 percent increase relative to last year’s tally of 1,102 ships.
Imported vehicles shot up by 69.41 percent to 92,998 units compared to 54,894 units during the same period last year whereas passenger traffic amounted to 44,268 passengers.
In a bid to strengthen national food security and fulfill local demand, food volumes climbed up at a 12.35 percent yearly growth rate to 2,364,943 tons from 2,104,962 tons besides 198,947 cattle heads making their way into the Kingdom, an enormous jump of 129.43 percent over last year’s count of 86,715.
By driving effective public-private partnerships, overhauling processes and automating operations, Mawani is firmly on track towards enhancing overall efficiency, promoting the Kingdom’s imports and exports, and building a robust legislative and regulatory environment.
Mawani also looks forward to fulfill the objectives of the National Transport and Logistics Strategy (NTLS) to transform Saudi Arabia into a global logistics center at the crossroads of three major continents.