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Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) announced on Tuesday the laying of foundation stone for the upgradation and development of two container terminals at King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam operated by Saudi Global Ports (SGP).
In April 2020, Mawani and SGP had signed a 30-year Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) agreement for modernisation of the two terminals at a total investment of over 7 billion Saudi riyals ($1.86 billion).
SGP said on its website that the modernisation programme would transform King Abdulaziz Port into a mega container hub and increase the Port's capacity to an estimated annual handling capacity of 7.5 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs).
The modernisation programme involves refurbishing berths of the first container terminal and expanding berths and the container yard of the second container terminal to enable the port to handle giant containerships, according to an Arabic language press statement issued by Mawani.
In July 2021, Jacobs Engineering Group (Jacobs) was appointed as the civil engineering consultant for the project.
In March 2022, SGP had assumed the operatorship of the Riyadh Dry Port (RDP) Ecosystem, which comprises of three facilities in Riyadh and Dammam under a new entity SGP Riyadh. The takeover was completed in under 4 months following the signing of a 10-year concession agreement between Saudi Railway Company (SAR) and SGP on 7 December 2021.
SGP, a joint venture of Public Investment Fund (PIF), Singapore's PSA International and Al Balagaa, was awarded the concession for King Abdulaziz Port in July 2011.
(Writing by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)
