Saudi Arabia’s maritime trade hubs have seen a yearly increase of 13% in cargo throughput during the year 2022, handling an estimated 237 million tons compared to 210 million tons in the preceding year.

The annual results mirror the mission of the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) to transform the nation’s ports into an operationally-efficient and robustly-regulated industry thriving on streamlined processes, high-impact partnerships, world-class infrastructure, global connectivity, digital transformation, and top-tier customer experience while fulfilling the Kingdom’s logistics hub ambitions set by the National Transport and Logistics Strategy (NTLS), reported Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

The year-end statistics for 2022 highlight a 3.2% surge in container volumes at 10.355 billion TEUs in contrast to 10.035 billion TEUs a year earlier. A further look at the sub-categories reveal a 5% boom in imported and exported boxes to 4.839 billion TEUs from 4.628 billion TEUs in the previous period. Similarly, transshipments inched up by 2% to hit 5.516 billion tons in comparison to 2021’s tally of 5.406 billion TEUs.

On the commodities front, Saudi ports unloaded around 3.93 billion cattle heads across 2022, up 9% year-on-year over the prior year’s total of 3.62 billion. Likewise, 973,000 cars rolled off incoming vessels at a 25% growth rate versus 778,000 units previously.

The Kingdom’s trade gateways also welcomed 933,000 passengers over the course of 2022, a 36% spike from 2021 when 688,000 pax landed on the country’s shores.