Jeddah Islamic Port, Saudi Arabia's biggest, will see its cargo traffic rise 29 percent this year as transshipments, petrochemical exports and local cargoes increase, according to director general Saher Tahlawi. Traffic will rise to 67 million tons, from 52 million in 2011, Tahlawi said at a conference in Dubai Tuesday. The port is likely to handle 4.7 million twenty-foot-equivalent unit containers, or TEUs, up from 4.01 million last year, he said. Jeddah may build a fourth container terminal, having spent SR5 billion ($1.33 billion) on expanding equipment and infrastructure during the past four years, Tahlawi said. Further expansion plans have also been flagged, with the aim of again doubling its current annual capacity of 6.5 million containers by 2020, early report said. Saudi Ports Authority controls the Kingdom's nine ports, six commercial and three industrial. Excluding crude oil, of which the Kingdom is the world's biggest exporter, the ports handled 5.7 million TEUs last year, Tahlawi said. Last March, the president of the Saudi Ports Authority (SPA), Abdul Aziz Al-Tuwaijri signed a number of contracts totaling SR500 million for the development and maintenance of the country's ports. Three contracts were awarded for the King Abdul Aziz Port, the second largest port in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including the build of two new berths for the handling of bulk cargo at a cost of SR170 million. The contract was awarded to Huta Hegerfeld Saudia, according to a statement by the SPA. Al-Balagha Trading Group also agreed a SR53 million contract at the port to rent the King Fahd Shipyard for a period of 10 years. A third contract, at a cost of SR94 million, was granted for the cleaning and general maintenance of the port for three years.
