The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) on Tuesday announced the laying of the foundation stone for upgrading and developing two container terminals at King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) concession signed with Saudi Global Ports (SGP) valued at over 7 billion riyals ($1.9 billion).
The launch ceremony was attended by H.E. Omar Hariri, President of Mawani, and Eng. Abdullah Al-Zamil, SGP Chairman, alongside senior logistics and maritime executives.
"The project is set to take the national maritime regulator a step closer to realizing its Saudi Vision 2030-inspired roadmap centered around optimizing port operations and modernizing infrastructure to build a booming and sustainable maritime ecosystem while fulfilling the aspirations of the National Transport and Logistics Strategy (NTLS) to position the Kingdom as a global logistics destination connecting three major continents," Mawani said.
The concession will work on refurbishing berths and facilities across the port’s first container terminal besides expanding berths and overhauling the container yard within the second container terminal to enable the Arabian Gulf hub to handle giant containerships. The development works will also add a custom-built sandbox to test cutting-edge technologies and conceptualize new processes before going online.
The project is expected to raise the port’s overall capacity by 120% to 7.5 million TEUs, strengthening the nation’s supply chains and boosting its foreign trade.
Mawani has a long-term developmental strategy to deploy 160 high-impact projects at a total cost of over 4 billion riyals.
