The new container terminal at Jeddah Islamic Port will increase the port’s capacity by 45 percent, said Dr. Khaled ibn Ahmed Boubasheet, president of the Saudi Seaports Authority, yesterday.
The new terminal named Red Sea Gateway will be completed within 22 months at a cost of SR1.6 billion, he said, adding that it would receive the first container ship in the last quarter of 2009.
Red Sea Gateway will have a handling capacity of 1.5 million containers annually. It will have a shipyard with a depth of 18 meters, an approach channel, a separate feeder berth, and provision for Saudi Land Bridge connectivity.
Boubasheet said the Red Sea Gateway would be a qualitative development in the Kingdom’s container terminal projects, adding that it would employ a large number of young Saudi graduates.
“We undertook a thorough exercise to choose the best name that will reflect our company’s vision, values and positioning,” said Red Sea Gateway Terminal CEO, Aamer A. Alireza. “Jeddah’s importance as a trading port has been sustained through history. The port is the main gateway to Saudi Arabia and our aim is to become the container terminal of choice in the Red Sea,” he added.
“The RSGT icon shows three containers viewed from the front, forming an upward arrow representing success,” terminal director Mazen Matar said.
“The colors represent the marriage between the sea, the land and sky, because we will be part of an integrated logistics hub. It’s all about speed and connectivity,” he said.
Construction of the container facility, the first private grass-roots build-operate-transfer container terminal project in Saudi Arabia, will commence in January 2008. This state-of-the-art container terminal will serve the new generation of ocean-going containerships and will incorporate world-class equipment and infrastructure.