Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) has announced that its container throughput for April grew at an annual rate of 13.34% from 601,429 TEUs to 681,663 TEUs. There was a 16.9% surge in exported volumes last month which rose to 208,738 TEUs from 178,450.

 

Container data for last month further showed a 16.97% surge in exported volumes at 208,738 TEUs compared to 178,450 TEUs in the previous year. 

 

Imports, on the other hand, inched up 3.12% to 208,080 TEUs from 201,784 TEUs this year with transshipments scoring 264,845 TEUs in monthly quantity, a 19.73% increase from 221,195 TEUs in April 2022, stated the monthly statistics released by Mawani.

 

The national maritime regulator also revealed a 6.63% drop in cargo numbers at its ports, handling about 24,965,999 tonnes in contrast to 26,737,416 tons a year earlier. The total cargo count for April included around 543,496 tons of general cargo, 4,135,552 tons of dry bulk cargo, and 13,026,227 tons of liquid bulk cargo.

 

A similar decrease was also witnessed across the trade of food commodities with a 1.26% fall from 1,533,118 tons in 2022 to 1,513,729 tons in 2023. On the contrary, livestock figures climbed 2.63% from 446,539 to 458,280 cattle heads.

 

Automobile units passing through Mawani’s hubs in April 2023 were estimated at 91,083 vehicles, a sizable jump of 52.8% from the 2022 level of 59,608. 

 

This year-on-year growth figure was bettered only by last month’s passenger traffic, which recorded an impressive 122.64% leap from 38,706 pax to 86,175 pax, said the statement from Mawani.

 

Besides hosting an increased flow of passengers, the Kingdom’s ports also accommodated 983 vessels across its berths last month, a marginal uptick of 3.69% from 2022’s total of 948 vessels.

 

Following a robust approach set forth by the National Transport and Logistics Strategy (NTLS), the Saudi maritime sector is on track to establish a world-class logistics platform through the deployment of cutting-edge technologies that drives the Kingdom’s journey towards new horizons while leading the global charge towards sustainability.