The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) has reported a 11.66% surge in container traffic across its trade hubs during September, handling 732,293 TEUs in comparison to 655,831 TEUs a year earlier, according to the company's release.
Monthly statistics further show an 18.2% bounce in exported containers from 198,529 TEUs in 2022 to 234,663 TEUs in 2023, with imported containers scaling up 17.18% to 217,933 TEUs last month from 185,986 TEUs twelve months ago. Sharing a similar trend, transshipments registered a 3.09% gain in volumes with this year’s count totaling 279,697 TEUs in contrast 271,316 TEUs in the prior year.
On the other hand, cargo throughput was finally back on the growth track with a 2.59% uptick at 26,058,679 tons as opposed to 25,399,895 tons in the previous year, thanks to 676,017 tons of general cargo, 4,211,684 tons of dry bulk cargo, and 13,175,777 tons of liquid bulk cargo.
Likewise, passenger traffic jumped 79.29% over the preceding year’s figure of 40,679 passengers to hit 72,934 passengers in the present year whereas automobile imports soared 19.77% from 69,341 to 83,049 units in 2023. Moreover, Mawani’s ports saw 11.83% additional vessels dock at its berths with a tally of 1,040 ships contrary to last year’s 930 ships.
However, it was livestock that remained September’s best performing category with an astounding 744.31% annual leap from 63,241 to 533,948 cattle heads. On the contrary, food commodities witnessed a 27.09% slide from 2,138,364 tons in September 2022 to 1,559,020 tons in September 2023.