SR540 million for Saudi ports improvement
The Saudi Seaports Authority (SSA) has laid down plans to enhance the capacity of Kingdom's sea ports, particularly at the Jeddah Islamic Port and Dammam's King Abdul Aziz Port.
As a short-term arrangement to counter the currently experienced congestion at the JIP, a SR540-million project will be implemented shortly, Khaled Boubasheet, president of SSA, said in a press statement in Riyadh yesterday.
The new measures are expected to speed up loading and unloading of consignments and other related services. The measures also include construction of three additional wharfs at the northern container terminal, Boubasheet said.
It was reported recently that many commercial ships are reportedly skipping the Jeddah Islamic Port due to extreme congestion and unload their consignments at nearby ports, causing problems to exporters and importers. They also skip the port fearing fines charged by authorities for the delay in unloading shipments.
Denying the report that ships were skipping Jeddah port, Boubasheet said that only ships that failed to arrive to the port on their fixed schedule were forced to wait for their turn or leave.
"The arrival of scheduled and late ships caused some sort of congestion at the port," he said.
He also added no other ship changed its destination to other ports in the recent months except one ship, which did for its own peculiar reason.
He also said that shipping charges to all ports in the Gulf region for consignments originating from European ports have gone up by 10 percent.
As a medium-term solution to the issue the SSA also intended to implement a SR1.6 billion project to enhance the annual capacity of the container terminals to a total of 6 million containers by the end of next year when the project would be completed.
The long-term solution under consideration includes construction of another terminal that can handle 4 million containers annually at the initial phase.
"Usually during the period from the beginning of the month of Ramadan and ending after the Haj season, the port used to experience hectic activities. This year it has been increased considerably because of the unprecedented economic development in the country and coincided with the regular peak season," Boubasheet said.