The new Red Sea Gateway Terminal (RSGT) at Jeddah Islamic Port has been officially opened, and is the first privately funded build operate and transfer (BOT) port development in Saudi Arabia
Spearheaded by Saudi Industrial Services group (SISCO) and built in accordance to RSGT's vision 'to be an engine of growth for the economy and business', the fully automated terminal covers an area of 500,000 sqm, is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and increases the terminal's annual overall capacity by 45 per cent.
"World trade is expanding and as a result, the container handling infrastructure in which we specialise will assume an increasingly larger role and importance in the global economy," said RSGT chairman Sheikh Mohamed Ahmed Zainal Alireza, in a company statement.
The container terminal now boasts of a dedicated deep water navigation channel, capable of handling vessels with a draft up to 16.5 m and the next generation of Triple E Class of mega vessels of 18,000+ TEU (Twenty foot equivalent).
Importantly, the terminal can be connected with current and future rail and transport systems in the Kingdom which will allow goods to be carried across the whole country.
"It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of having an efficient, reliable and secure container port," said RSGT board member and former project director, Mazen Matar.
Commercially operational from 2009, RSGT has achieved the highest productivity figures in the region and handled volume of 1mn TEU in 2011 which accounted for 25 per cent of Jeddah Islamic Port's volume.
