Modern Port Facilities and Shipping Line Enhance Trade
Cranes at King Abdul Aziz Port in Dammam are used to load and unload cargo from vessels around the world.
Saudi Arabia's spectacular socioeconomic growth over the past three decades
has brought about great advances in social services, education, health care,
industry, agriculture, commerce and in many other areas. With advances in each of
these fields have come unique challenges and needs, which the Kingdom has
successfully addressed.
The development of a modern infrastructure in the 1970s triggered a rapid
growth in the Kingdom's overall economy, with both imports and exports almost
doubling every year. To handle the high volume of goods required to sustain the
national economy, which in turn was generating more and more products for export
abroad, Saudi Arabia in 1976 established the Ports Authority to plan and
implement a program to build a modern network of ports. Over the next two
decades, the organization expanded existing ports and built modern ship-handling
facilities at new ones at a total estimated cost of more than 40 billion Saudi
riyals (10.6 billion U.S. dollars). As a result, the number of berths at Saudi
ports rose from 37 to 182 and their overall cargo-handling capacity increased by
more than ten-fold up to 251.7 million tons annually. These projects will
accommodate future growth in exports and imports.
The Ports Authority's plan for developing a modern network of ports in the
country began with the expansion of Saudi Arabia's two largest existing ports,
Jeddah on the Red Sea and Dammam on the Arabian Gulf.
Saudi Arabia has built a number of modern ports to handle imports and exports
along both the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea. The port at Jubail Industrial City
(above and below), the third largest in the Kingdom, handles mainly industrial
goods.
The Jeddah Islamic Port, Saudi Arabia's largest outlet to the world,
underwent massive expansion and modernization, carried out in phases over the
past two decades. Two new terminals and 40 berths were built to handle cargo
vessels of all types. Modern cranes, storage areas, traffic control centers,
fire-fighting equipment and a range of support facilities and services have been
established at the port to handle vessels around the clock. It is now equipped to
handle all types of ships, carrying bulk cargo, containers, roll-on-roll-off
cargo and livestock. The volume of cargo handled by the port has increased from
1.9 million tons two decades ago to 18.9 million tons in 1994.
The port is also the main point- of-entry for pilgrims to Islam's two holiest
sites, in Makkah and Madinah. Last year, close to one million people passed
through the port's passenger terminals.
The King Abdul Aziz Port in Dammam underwent a similar expansion project. A
two-mile jetty extending into the Arabian Gulf was built to handle large vessels,
while a separate one-mile jetty was constructed for smaller ships and a third was
established for fishing boats. Originally built as a small port to handle
imported equipment for the Saudi oil industry, it is now a multipurpose facility
that handles all kinds of cargo, including industrial products and consumer
goods. The volume of cargo passing through the port has grown steadily, from 1.5
million tons two decades ago to 8.9 million tons in 1994. These figures are for
cargo only and do not include Saudi Arabia's vast crude oil exports.
The next two largest ports in the Kingdom were built in the late 1970s and
early 1980s. They are located in the twin industrial cities of Jubail on the Gulf
and Yanbu on the Red Sea. Each of these cities has a separate industrial port,
handling imports to feed the large number of plants and factories built at the
sites and for exporting their products to distant ports, as well as a commercial
port for bulk, containerized and general cargo bound for other cities in the
Kingdom. Each of these ports is equipped with the latest equipment and services
for the rapid handling of vessels and cargo. Over the past decade, the total
volume of goods handled annually by Jubail has increased from 4.4 million tons to
29.7 million tons, while the volume of cargo passing through Yanbu has grown from
14.8 million tons to 28.9 million tons.
Saudi Arabia has also established a number of smaller modern ports along its
Gulf and Red Sea coasts, including Al-Khobar, Jizan and Duba, to complement its
main ports and serve their immediate areas.
In addition to facilities to handle cargo, Saudi ports are also equipped with
shipyards and repair docks to help repair and maintain Saudi and
international vessels.
In the early stages of the massive effort to build a network of modern ports,
Saudi Arabia also moved to establish a company to serve the country's growing
shipping needs. In 1979, a consortium consisting of the Saudi Government and
individual shareholders formed the National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia
(NSCSA). One of the many examples of successful cooperation between the public
and private sectors, the majority of the company's 20 million shares are held by
private investors.
In its 17 years of existence, NSCSA has grown from a small shipping company
into one that is now a major international presence, with a sizable fleet of
vessels and sophisticated cargo-handling operations directed out of offices in 15
cities worldwide.
Like most Saudi ventures, NSCSA's growth was well-planned and methodical. By
1981, it had commissioned two 27,724-ton ships, the Saudi Makkah and Saudi
Riyadh, to transport freight from the Saudi ports of Jeddah on the Red Sea and
Dammam in the Arabian Gulf to ports in the United States and Canada.
Most of the vessels of the National Shipping Company of
Saudi Arabia are of the roll-on-roll-off type.
By 1986, the company had increased its fleet size by adding four
state-of-the-art 42,600-ton Abha-class vessels to its freight service, and was
carrying cargo to ports in the Mediterranean, the Indian subcontinent and the Far
East. All these vessels are roll-on-roll-off, known in the shipping industry as
ro-ros. Forty-foot ramps allow cargo to be driven directly into the vessels by
onboard trailers and placed in position by forklifts on the various decks in the
hull. This not only allows for rapid loading and unloading of cargo but also
reduces the possibility of damage due to the use of heavy cranes and exposure to
the elements. Standard containerized cargo, however, is loaded by cranes directly
onto the top deck. The addition of two 38,036-ton Qassim-class vessels has
brought the number of ships in NSCSA's fleet to eight.
The NSCSA now offers a weekly service from U.S. and Canadian ports, including
Houston, New Orleans, Savannah, Wilmington, Norfolk, Baltimore, New York, Halifax
and St. John, to Dammam, Dubai and Kuwait in the Arabian Gulf and Jeddah in the
Red Sea. From there, cargo can be trans-shipped through the company's services to
ports in the Far East, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Pusan in South
Korea and Taiwan.
While continuing its efforts to remain a successful freight shipper, NSCSA
has also been expanding in new directions. In 1985, the company introduced a
service to carry to European ports petrochemical products from the plants of the
Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) in Jubail. The following year, it
entered into an agreement with the United Arab Shipping Company to operate
another vessel to carry petrochemicals on the same line.
The most modern cargo ships afloat, the company fleet handles all types of cargo,
including vehicles stored below deck.
At the same time, NSCSA formed a subsidiary, the National Chemical Carriers
(NCC) to focus on shipping petrochemicals produced by SABIC and other
petrochemical companies to distant markets, including the U.S., Europe and the
Far East. The new subsidiary has proved to be an extremely profitable venture,
and has grown steadily over the years. Today, it has 15 chemical tankers with a
combined fleet capacity of more than 400,000 tons, with another vessel scheduled
to be delivered later this year. NCC vessels presently serve more than 150 ports
around the globe.
In 1994, the company established a new crude-oil tanker division to handle
the administrative, technical and operational strategies of this new venture.
That same year, NSCSA signed a contract for the construction of five 300,000-ton
very large crude carriers (VLCCs). All are doubled-hulled to reduce the
possibility of an oil spill and are scheduled for delivery by February of 1997.
Saudi Arabia's modern network of ports and vessels are symbols of the
Kingdom's growing presence in the global economy.
The various types of vessels operated
by NSCSA, including the Yanbu Pride, fly the Saudi flag to ports on
three continents.
