JEDDAH, 10 November —The Jeddah Islamic Port has attracted SR2 billion in private investments through contracts, said Muhammad Al-Tuwaijeri, director general of operations.
The operation and maintenance of the port has been entrusted to the private sector and as a result loading and unloading is now much more efficient, reported Al-Watan yesterday.
Tuwaijeri also expected considerable increase in the volume of shipments and the number of passengers this year because of the better facilities at the port. The number of ships expected to visit to the port is also set to increase.
The volume of imports last year totaled more than 14 million tons, while 4 million tons of goods were exported. The number of containers handled at the port was estimated at 1.05 million. The improvements in the port include the commissioning of the northern container station, which will help receive larger quantities of containers, the upgrade of the southern container station to accommodate more container ships, and the introduction of most modern cranes and other machinery to load and unload larger quantities of freight more quickly.
