The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) recently confirmed that it recorded a 13.61% year-on-year increase in container handling during March 2025, reaching 699,928 TEUs compared to 616,079 TEUs in the same period the previous year.
Exported containers, it said, saw a significant rise of 31.82% during this period, totalling 280,341 TEUs – up from 212,672 TEUs in the same period last year. Meanwhile, imported container volumes grew by 7.78%, reaching 281,216 TEUs compared to 260,912 TEUs.
However, it did note that transshipment containers recorded a 2.89% decline, totalling 138,371 TEUs compared to 142,495 TEUs in the same period the year before.
Furthermore, it found that total cargo throughput tonnage – including general cargo, solid bulk and liquid bulk – rose by 8.69%. This figure reached over 21.1 million tons in March 2025, up from just under 19.5 million tons in March 2024.
And maritime traffic, the statistics show, witnessed a 6.75% increase year-over-year, rising from 978 vessels in March 2024 to 1,044 vessels in March 2025.
The formation of the Saudi Ports Authority, also known as Mawani – the Arabic word for ‘ports’, came about in 2018 when it was given the authority to oversee all civilian ports across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, except those belonging to the economic cities.
Today, Mawani operates 10 ports in Saudi Arabia in total, on both the east and west coast. The number of berths across all of these ports total 291, and these ports welcome around 15,000 ships each year.
The two largest ports in Saudi Arabia are King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam and Jeddah Islamic port in Jeddah. While the former sits in the Red Sea, on the west coast of the country, the latter is located on the opposite coast, facing the Red Sea.
King Abdulaziz Port is the older and smaller of the two, but benefits from unique advantages such as rail connectivity, offering a direct rail link to the nation’s capital – Riyadh.
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