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Event highlights Kingdom’s rapid seaport infrastructure development and overall $100 billion 2020 investment in transport and logistics Saudi Arabia is experiencing exponential growth in its ports and shipping sectors, particularly in relation to the number of mega infrastructural land and sea projects planned and currently in progress, totaling more than US$ 30 billion within the government’s current five-year plan. Experts presented a series of papers to more than 200 delegates at the First Saudi Maritime Congress that highlighted the Kingdom’s rapid seaport infrastructure development and overall investment in transport and logistics. According to Bloomberg, new mega Saudi port projects include Jeddah Islamic Port (JIP) which is currently undergoing an expansion project, which will eventually increase capacity by 45%. The Red Sea Gateway Terminal (RSGT) was launched at JIP with the facility receiving its first vessel, with the RSGT project having a 1.8 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) capacity. The US$ 510 million project has been developed on 400,000 square metres of reclaimed land and has a 740 metre main berth, plus a 390 metre feeder berth. Other major projects according to arabnewservice.com include, the seaport in phase one of the US$ 26 billion, King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), which opened earlier this year in January and is designed to become one of the top ten ports in the world. MARAFIQ’s Yanbu Industrial City - Marine Facilities (US$ 210 million) and Saudi Aramco with their Dareen Port Expansion Project (US$ 35 million) which is due to be completed this year. Jay New, CEO of International Port Services Company (IPS), a joint venture between Hutchison Port Holdings and the Maritime Company for Navigation which has the Dammam container terminal concession at King Abdul Aziz Port, commented;
'Shipping lines want to come to port for the same length of time, but with more cargo; they want to come for the same length of time, but with larger vessels, so it is our job to look after those vessels,' he said. Speaking on Day 1 of the two-day conference, Hassan Abouraya, consultant engineer, business development, international marketing & risk management executive at Zamil Offshore Services discussed the urgent requirement for a large repair facility of the Red Sea Coast. 'On the Red Sea, there are more than 25,000 merchant vessels navigating North and South. Only two old repair yards with limited docking capabilities are available in Jeddah and Suez, there is room for at least one world class ship repair yard to be built.'
Some progress has been made on that front, as Zamil Offshore itself already has plans for a joint venture project to build a large shipyard on the Red Sea coast to repair VLCC tankers up to suezmax size and shipbuilding capabilities up to 20,000 deadweight tonnage (dwt). Saudi-based Bahri and Aramco have also signed an MOU with Singapore-based engineering company Sembcorp Marine, to conduct a feasibility study to build a world class shipyard in Saudi Arabia capable of the design, building and repair of very large merchant vessels.
Held under the patronage of H.E. Jabara bin Eid Al Suraiseri, the Saudi Arabian Minister of Transport and Chairman of Saudi Ports Authority, the two day conference-led event, which concluded yesterday at the Sheraton Dammam Hotel & Towers, has attracted up to 300 delegates, including some of the Kingdom’s foremost stakeholders, decision makers, investors, trade specialists and economists
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